Washington: Another India-American has pleaded guilty to liquidating and laundering money in the US through India-based call centres, becoming the seventh person of Indian-origin to admit his role in the massive telephone impersonation fraud. Using information obtained from data brokers and other sources, call centre operators targeted victims who were threatened with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay alleged monies owed to the US government.
Miteshkumar Patel, 42, resident of Illinois, joined six other defendants who recently pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in the scam. The scam defrauded American residents of hundreds of millions of dollars, the Justice Department said.
Sunny Joshi of Texas, Jagdish Kumar Chaudhari of Alabama and Rajesh Bhatt of Texas each pleaded guilty to one count of money laundering conspiracy. Raman Patel of Arizona, Praful Patel of Florida and Jerry Norris of California, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering offences.
The pleas were entered before US district court Judge David Hittner of the southern District of Texas between September 22 and November 13, except for Raman Patel’s plea, which was entered before US district Court Judge Michelle Burns in the district of Arizona on November 6. Six of the men have been in federal custody since their arrests in October 2016 and will remain detained until their pending sentencing dates, the Department of Justice said.
According to admissions made in connection with their pleas, the accused perpetrated a complex scheme in which individuals from call centres located in Ahmedabad, impersonated officials from the Internal Revenue Service and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Using information obtained from data brokers and other sources, call centre operators targeted US victims who were threatened with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay alleged monies owed to the government.
Victims who agreed to pay the scammers were instructed how to provide payment, including by purchasing general purpose reloadable (GPR) cards or wiring money.
