- Texas AG Ken Paxton issued investigative demands to nearly 30 North Texas businesses regarding H-1B fraud.
- Investigators are targeting firms allegedly using ghost offices and empty buildings to secure worker sponsorships.
- The probe aligns with 2026 state-led enforcement efforts to increase scrutiny on foreign worker visa compliance.
(NORTH TEXAS) — The Texas Office of the Attorney General expanded a statewide H-1B visa fraud investigation on Friday, targeting nearly 30 North Texas businesses that it says used “ghost offices” to secure visa sponsorships for foreign workers.
Attorney General Ken Paxton issued Civil Investigative Demands on April 30, 2026, escalating an inquiry that began in January. The demands seek records from companies accused of presenting rented homes, virtual offices or empty buildings as operating worksites.
Paxton framed the probe as an effort to police abuse inside a federal visa system that allows U.S. employers to sponsor foreign workers in specialty occupations. “I will not allow the H-1B program to be abused by bad actors seeking to use it as a loophole for allowing foreign nationals to invade Texas. My office will continue working to uncover and put an end to fraud within the H-1B program.”
The alleged scheme centers on what investigators describe as ghost offices. In practice, that can mean a residential address, a virtual suite or a vacant building listed as a functioning business location even though no real operation takes place there.
State investigators contend that arrangement lets an employer appear to satisfy federal worksite rules tied to H-1B sponsorship while offering no legitimate specialty occupation role at the listed site. The companies now under scrutiny must turn over payroll records, lease agreements, client contracts and employee lists.
Named firms include Tekpro IT LLC, Fame PBX LLC, 1st Ranking Technologies LLC, Qubitz Tech Systems LLC, Blooming Clouds LLC, Virat Solutions, Inc., Oak Technologies Inc., Techpath Inc., and Techquency LLC. State officials said the list is part of a wider group of nearly 30 businesses in North Texas.
The action places Texas among the few states using its own enforcement tools against alleged fraud in a federal work visa program. It also follows Governor Greg Abbott’s executive order on January 27, 2026, which froze new H-1B petitions for Texas state agencies and public universities.
Federal authorities had already moved against a separate North Texas operation last year. In June 2025, prosecutors in the Northern District of Texas indicted Abdul Hadi Murshid and Muhammad Salman Nasir in what officials described as a multi-year H-1B and green card fraud scheme involving shell companies.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services linked that earlier case to a broader enforcement effort in the region. “Protecting the integrity of the immigration process is a priority for USCIS. [USCIS] played a key role in supporting a federal investigation that resulted in the indictment of two Texas residents for their alleged involvement in a large-scale immigration fraud scheme.”
The Texas probe also arrives after a federal rule change that took effect in February 2026. That rule shifted the H-1B lottery to a wage-weighted selection system, increasing the pressure on sponsoring employers to show they are offering genuine high-skill jobs at real wages.
Those overlapping state and federal moves have sharpened scrutiny of staffing businesses that rely on dispersed worksites and contract placements. In North Texas, where technology consulting firms often place workers at client locations, the question in this investigation is whether the listed office existed as an actual place of business or as a paper address.
The risks now extend beyond the companies. Workers sponsored through businesses found to have committed H-1B visa fraud could lose visa status, face removal proceedings, or encounter bars on future entry if the government determines the underlying petition was fraudulent.
Companies face a different set of consequences. Texas can pursue fines under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, and state investigators can refer cases for federal criminal review if the records point to immigration fraud, wire fraud or related offenses.
The [Texas Office of the Attorney General press release](https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov) announced the latest Civil Investigative Demands on April 30, 2026. Federal enforcement updates remain posted in the [USCIS newsroom](https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom), and employer petition records can be cross-checked through the [USCIS H-1B Data Hub](https://www.uscis.gov/tools/reports-and-studies/h-1b-employer-data-hub).
Those records matter because the H-1B system ties each petition to an employer, a worksite and a wage level. If investigators show that a listed office was a shell, an empty room or a borrowed address, the case against that employer can turn on its own filings, leases and payroll trail.
Paxton’s office has now moved the dispute from compliance review to compulsory record production. Nearly 30 North Texas businesses must answer those demands while the state tests whether ghost offices were a shortcut into a visa program built for real jobs, real worksites and documented employers.
