An Indian national on Monday was sentenced to 20 years in prison[1] in the Southern District
of Texas for operating and funding India-based call centers that
defrauded US victims out of millions of dollars between 2013 and
2016.
Hitesh Madhubhai Patel (aka Hitesh Hinglaj), who hails from the
city of Ahmedabad, India, was sentenced in connection with charges
of fraud and money laundering.
He was also ordered to pay restitution of $8,970,396 to
identified victims of his crimes.
Earlier this January, Patel pleaded guilty[2]
to 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 US 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,” said Acting Attorney
General Brian C. Rabbitt of the Justice Department’s Criminal
Division in a statement.
The “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 US judicial system.”
The first-ever large-scale, multi-jurisdictional investigation
targeting the India call center scam industry saw the US Department
of Homeland Security (DHS) and Treasury Inspector General for Tax
Administration (TIGTA) charging Patel and 60 co-conspirators for
orchestrating a “complex scheme” that involved employees based out
of call centers in Ahmedabad masquerading as officials from the IRS
and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
Besides impersonation, the call center employees were found to
engage in telephone call scams designed to con victims by
threatening them with arrest, imprisonment, fines, or deportation
for failing to pay alleged money owed to the government.
“Those who fell victim to the scammers were instructed how to
provide payment, including by purchasing general purpose reloadable
(GPR) cards or wiring money,” the Department of Justice said. “Upon
payment, the call centers would immediately turn to a network of
‘runners’ based in the US to liquidate and launder the fraudulently
obtained funds.”
Patel — who was arrested in Singapore before getting extradited
to the US in April last year — had previously admitted to running
multiple call centers, including one named HGLOBAL, to carry out
his telefraud schemes, in addition to corresponding by email and
WhatsApp messages to exchange credit card numbers, telephone scam
scripts, and call center operations instructions with his
co-defendants.
To date, a total of 24 domestic defendants associated with the
money laundering scam have previously been convicted and sentenced
to terms of imprisonment of up to 20 years.
References
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sentenced to 20 years in prison
(www.justice.gov) - ^
pleaded
guilty (www.justice.gov)