WASHINGTON:Three Indians have pleaded guilty to criminal charges of conspiring to commit student visa and financial aid fraud through a for-profit school they ran and agreed to forfeit over $ eight million to federal authorities.

Suresh Hiranandaney, 61, Lalit Chabria, 54, and Anita Chabira, 50, were arrested in May 2014, along with co-defendants Samir Hiranandaney and Seema Shah following a long-term investigation by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI).

Mr Hiranandaney and the Chabira duo pleaded guilty yesterday in the Manhattan federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit student visa fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit student financial aid fraud.

They also agreed to forfeit $ 7.4 million of proceeds of the student visa fraud conspiracy to the US government and another million dollars in restitution to the US Department of Education for losses from the student financial aid fraud conspiracy.

Each faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and will be sentenced in September this year.

Mr Hiranandaney, 28, and Ms Shah, 42, face pending criminal conspiracy charges.

Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said the three turned their for-profit schools into "instruments of fraud to exploit our nation's foreign student visa and domestic student financial aid programs for their own personal financial gain. Education fraud remains a high-priority focus of ours and we will prosecute all those who make a self-serving sham out of education."

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Source: PTI