The scheme targeted US residents with fraudulent phone calls and conned victims out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Twenty-one people were sentenced last week for an India-based fraud and money-laundering scheme that tricked US residents out of hundreds of millions of dollars, the Department of Justice reports. Three members of the same operation were sentenced earlier this year.
As part of the scheme, fraudsters called US targets and pretended they were government employees from the IRS and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). They convinced victims they owed money to the US government and would be arrested or deported if they didn't pay. When the money was transferred, US-based "runners" would liquidate the funds.
Members of the operation were sentenced with hefty prison terms. Miteshkumar Patel, who managed a group of runners in Chicago, was given the longest term of 240 months. Hardik Patel was given 188 months for wire-fraud conspiracy. Other participants were sentenced to 151-, 145-, 121-, 108-, 87-, 60-, and 45-month terms. On top of prison time, 22 defendants were "held jointly and severally liable" for restitution of $8,970,396 payable to identified victims.
The indictment also charged 32 India-based conspirators and five Indian call centers with wire-fraud conspiracy, general conspiracy, and money-laundering conspiracy.
Read more details here.
Black Hat USA returns to Las Vegas with hands-on technical Trainings, cutting-edge Briefings, Arsenal open-source tool demonstrations, top-tier security solutions and service providers in the Business Hall. Click for information on the conference and to register.
About the Author(s)
You May Also Like
Securing Code in the Age of AI
April 24, 2024Beyond Spam Filters and Firewalls: Preventing Business Email Compromises in the Modern Enterprise
April 30, 2024Key Findings from the State of AppSec Report 2024
May 7, 2024Is AI Identifying Threats to Your Network?
May 14, 2024Where and Why Threat Intelligence Makes Sense for Your Enterprise Security Strategy
May 15, 2024
Black Hat USA - August 3-8 - Learn More
August 3, 2024Cybersecurity's Hottest New Technologies: What You Need To Know
March 21, 2024