Two men who ran two software companies from the same Clinton, Ia., building were sentenced this week to more than three years in prison following a long-standing conspiracy to commit visa fraud for foreign workers.

Fazal Mehmood, 51, and Vineet Maheshwari, 37, from Pakistan and India respectively, were sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Davenport for conspiracy to commit visa fraud, making false statements to the United States government and for engaging in monetary transactions in criminally derived property.

Both men were allowed to work in the United States because of employer documents filed by Worldwide Software Services or Sana Systems.

Federal prosecutors said they applied for H-1B visas for foreign workers that contained false statements about their jobs and work locations.

Both men were arrested in February 2009 in a joint effort by federal authorities and Clinton police.

Judge John A. Jarvey imposed a sentence of 40 months for each man, followed by three years of supervised release should the defendant be allowed to remain in the United States. Mehmood already has agreed to be deported to Pakistan.

The men admitted they used Worldwide Software Services Inc. on Fifth Avenue in Clinton to provide numerous false documents to the departments of Labor and Homeland Security, while sponsoring foreign workers under the H-1B visa program.

They also pleaded guilty of engaging in a monetary transaction of more than $10,000 tied to the fraud.

In a separate agreement with the United States attorney’s office, the defendants conceded the conspiracy involved more than 100 false documents and that each had an aggravated role in the offenses.

In addition to the prison sentences, the judge ordered the defendants to forfeit more than $1 million in proceeds of the visa fraud. Jarvey found that the fraud was “long-standing.”