H-1B/Nepotism Scandal At University Of Illinois
07/25/2009
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It's never a bad idea to marry into the right family—take Maarten de Jeu, for an example. He is a Dutch citizen that is lucky enough to be Niranjan Shah's son-in-law. If you haven't heard of Niranjan Shah then keep reading!

De Jeu came to the U.S. on an H-1B visa, and he immediately got a very cushy job at the University of Illinois—a place where coincidentally Niranjan Shah is a trustee. There are more "coincidences" however!

The university paid $1,820 so that de Jeu's H-1B visa could be expedited. It's a program called "premium processing" that puts the visa on a fast track to approval. In UofI's petition for de Jeu's H-1B temporary work visa the university wrote that de Jeu would, "deliver customized training and consulting services." The visa processing time was reduced from several months to several weeks.

You can get to know the father-in-law at the university website. They even have a picture of him.

A university spokeswoman said that the job that de Jeu was given was never offered to the American public because, "it would be difficult to find someone with that kind of talent." She was very sure that Americans just couldn't be found for this job even though the university never tried. Of course none of that matters now because it has become very obvious to everyone that the job was created for de Jeu.

Niranjan Shah got appointed to the U of I Board by disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich. Perhaps another coincidence, but Shah contributed $50,000 to the Blagojevich campaign for governor. The coincidences just keep coming!

Niranjan Shah's daughter is Smita Shah. Like her daddy, she is heavily involved in politics. Look at this picture of Smita and Hillary Clinton. Speaking of Hillary, didn't she just come back from a trip to India?

Save that picture because it might not be on the web for very long.

Daddy and daughter are heavily involved in the Democratic party. Here is just one more sordid example:

That the Indian American delegates put up a visible presence at the Democratic National Convention was evident from the key roles some of them were given to play during the convention, including being invited to be seated on the podium during the various sessions. Maryland House delegate Kumar Barve and Smita Shah (daughter of Niranjan Shah), as Vice Chairman and member respectively of the DNC Rules Committee, probably played the most important roles among the Indian American representatives at the convention.
Smita Shah didn't really need daddy's help to find a job for hubby de Jeu. That's because she is the president of a Chicago-based company that employs 41 people called SPAAN Technology, Inc. SPAAN is considered "minority owned", and even better for them it is "minority FEMALE owned", which means it gets first dibs at city, state, and federal contracts. To be blunt about the situation—if you are a white male business owner you will be lucky to get thrown a bone after minority female owned businesses pig out at the trough. You probably won't fare very well even if you are a black or Hispanic male business owner. Nowadays female minority business owners rule the world—at least that part of the world that mandates "equal opportunity".

Find out more about Smita's company here:

http://www.spaantech.com

Ooops!

The website has a message that says it's "under construction". That's an odd "coincidence" considering that SPAAN is in the construction business. Could it be that their Indian IT workers aren't very good at building web pages?

Unfortunately like a lot of information on Smita Shah, it's disappearing from the web. Everything about her February 2008 wedding to Maarten de Jeu is disappearing from the web even though it was a big event. This is still in the Google cache on the SPANN homepage but don't count on it staying for long.

SPAAN Tech, established in 1998, is one of the foremost Minority Female owned firms in Chicago whose sole owner has been recognized repeatedly for her business acumen and community involvement. SPAAN Tech has business lines in design engineering, construction management, facilities management, program management, IT services and construction. SPAAN Tech is a certified MBE/WBE/DBE firm with the City of Chicago, States of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Florida. SPAAN Tech’s staff includes professional engineers, architects, accountants, lawyers and real estate brokers, with professional designations such as LEED AP and Certified Property Managers.
The Niranjan Shah scandal is getting uglier. Recently he threw his secretary under the bus by blaming most of the bad publicity on her, who supposedly didn't word some emails properly. The problem with Niranjan's scapegoating excuse is that many of the emails weren't written by him or the secretary. Take this one by de Jeu thanking the university for his new found fortune at having a good job and marrying the right woman:
"You very kindly positioned it as an opportunity that would allow me to make the transition and I sincerely appreciate your offer and assistance. I also wanted to make sure that you are aware that my interest goes beyond 'just securing my transition to the US.' "[Trustee requested job help at U. of I.]
Could any other city besides Chicago be more appropriate for a scandal that some are calling Cloutgate? Mark my words, it's only be a matter of time before the Obama's are connected to the Shah's. Do the names Aneesh Chopra and Vivek Kundra ring a bell?

REFERENCES:

U of I Board Chair Niranjan Shah Throws Secretary Under the Bus—Pat Quinn Should Fire Shah

UofI Cloutgate's Family Plan | U of I created job for trustee chair son-in-lawave future son-in-law tailor-made, $115,000-a-year position, By Jodi S. Cohen, Chicago Tribune,

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