Hyderabad: Some of the city-based education consultants accused in the NZ immigration fraud are claiming that they have been scapegoated middlemen and banks.
Storm Atlas Educational Consultants, one of the eight firms accused by Immigration NZ, denies taking money from customers and maintains that banks are to blame.
“All our services are free. In fact, the issue is linked to NZ’s politics. We are not involved in falsification of documents. The middlemen and bank managers get away,” said Mr P. Srinivas Reddy of the Storm group.
Mr Reddy added that bank managers benefit by granting loans. “In reality, there is no loan. The sanction letter is prepared by middlemen whose business is preparing fake loan letters. Bank managers confirm that the loan is sanctioned via email. Students are then charged two to three per cent of the loan amount. Of this a small share goes to the middlemen and the rest goes to the bank manager,” Mr Reddy said.
“The NZ immigration document clearly mentions that out of the 136 application Storm has only two cases with bogus documents,” Mr Reddy said.
