Patel, 43, and his accomplices defrauded several Americans by making false phone calls impersonating tax or immigration officials.
Indian national Bharat Kumar Patel pleaded guilty on Thursday in the US District Court of the Southern District of Texas for his role in liquidating and laundering victim payments generated through false phone calls via India-based call center.
The final sentencing is scheduled for July 7, 2017. Patel has agreed to deportation following his sentence. He was charged for his role in money laundering with other 55 individuals and five call centers by the Southern District of Texas on October 19, 2016. They were inducted for defrauding thousands of victims across the country.
Patel and his co-conspirators managed complex, well set-up call center based in Ahmedabad, India, and a team of “runners” in the US. Patel’s India-based call center used to make phone calls to potential victims in the US, posing as Internal Revenue Service (IRS) or US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officials. “Using information obtained from data brokers and other sources, call center operators targeted U. S. victims who were threatened with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay alleged monies owed to the government,” the Justice Department’s statement read. Once the victims agreed to pay the money, they were guided on the procedure that included pre-paid cards or money transfers through wires.
“Upon the payment, the call centers would immediately turn to a network of “runners” based in the U.S. to liquidate and launder the fraudulently-obtained funds,” according to the Justice Department.
Patel was involved in the call center scam since July 2013. He started the operations as a member to the crew of runners operating in the Chicago area that eventually spread across the country. He used to buy reloadable cards and retrieve wire transfers, according to his admission in the court. Patel admitted that he opened bank accounts to receive fraudulent payments and create limited liability companies in his name to further the conspiracy. “According to his plea, Patel opened one bank account that received more than $1.5 million in deposits over a one-year period and another bank account that received more than $450,000 in deposits over a five-month period,” the news statement specified.
The Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) and Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) led the investigations of this case. The Police departments of Hoffman Estates and Naperville, Illinois, and Leonia, New Jersey; INTERPOL Washington, along with other law enforcement agencies, assisted in the suit.
Assistant US Attorneys S March McIntyre and Craig M Feazel of the Southern District of Texas are prosecuting the case along with Senior Trial Attorney Michael Sheckels and Trial Attorney Mona Sahaf of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Trial Attorney Robert Stapleton of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section.