Indian National Sentenced to Jail for Call Center Fraud
Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, an Indian national, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for wire fraud conspiracy and general conspiracy to commit identification fraud, access device fraud, money laundering, and impersonation of a federal officer or employee.
“The defendant defrauded vulnerable U.S. victims out of tens of millions of dollars by spearheading a conspiracy whose members boldly impersonated federal government officials and preyed on victims’ fears of adverse government action,” Acting Attorney General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said of the crime. “Today’s sentence demonstrates the department’s commitment to prosecuting high-level perpetrators of such nefarious schemes. Even fraudsters operating scams from beyond our borders are not beyond the reach of the U.S. judicial system.”
Patel and his co-conspirators impersonated IRS and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials and government officials from several countries to extort their victims for money. In addition, they used the messaging app Whatsapp to exchange credit card information and telephone scam scripts to defraud hundreds of people around the world. According to one of his co-defendants, Patel was arrested in India in 2016 but paid a bribe to escape punishment.
According to Patel’s plea agreement, U.S. victims were threatened with arrest, fines, or deportation if they did not pay the amount required by the scammers. Once the funds were received, a network of “runners” were tasked with liquidating and laundering the money. Patel was extradited to the United States after he was apprehended in Singapore in April 2019.
HSI, DHS-OIG and TIGTA led the investigation of this case in conjunction with Singapore Attorney General’s-Chambers and the Singapore Police Force.
Special Agent in Charge David Green of the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG) said of the crime, “The sentence imposed today provides a clear deterrent to those who would seek to enrich themselves by extorting the most vulnerable in our society through these types of scams. These foreign call center operators and their U.S. based affiliates should know that their actions carry real life consequences, both for their victims and for themselves, and that there are dedicated agents and prosecutors who will work tirelessly to identify them, find them and hold them accountable for their crimes.”
The Department of Justice has established a special website to provide information about the case and resources for victims.