Indian Sentenced to Eight Years in Jail in Florida for Call Center FraudTop Stories

April 03, 2019 00:27
Indian Sentenced to Eight Years in Jail in Florida for Call Center Fraud

(Image source from: Dailymotion)

An Indian national on Tuesday has been sentenced to eight years and nine months imprisonment for his involvement in an India-based call center scam, the United Statement Department of Justice said.

The 31-year-old Nishitkumar Patel, who had pleaded guilty to the charges on January 9, has also been asked by a Florida court to pay USD 2,00,000, forfeit cash and a 2015 Land Rover that was seized in October 2018.

According to court documents, Patel connived with the U.S.-based co-conspirators and the India-based call centers to extort money from American residents by impersonating Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officers between 2014 and 2016.

During this period, they made the victims believe that they owed money to the IRS and would be arrested and penalized if they did not pay their alleged taxes back immediately, as per the documents.

The conspirators collected the fraud proceeds by withdrawing cash from prepaid cards purchased and funded by victims, hiring other conspirators (runners) to retrieve money wired by the victims to those runners, and/or hiring runners to open bank accounts into which victims deposited fraud proceeds, revealed the documents.

The defendants collected the proceeds by providing the runners with the victims' names, locations, and amounts paid. The runners were directed to retrieve the fraud proceeds in cash and turn the funds over to the defendants, often less payment to the runner for opening the account or conducting the transaction, according to the documents.

Four others have already pleaded guilty for their roles in the scheme. On March 25, Alejandro Juarez was sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. Hemalkumar Shah, Sharvil Patel, and Brenda Dozier are currently awaiting sentencing.

By Sowmya Sangam

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florida  call center