Hitesh Madhubhai Patel, an Indian national was pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas. He has been pleaded guilty for his role in a call-center and money-laundering scam which defrauded the victims of U.S with millions of dollars.
The department of Justice release says that Hitesh Madhubhai Patel of 43 years old who is also known as Hitesh Hinglaj, of Ahmedabad, India has entered a guilty plea in the Southern District of Texas.
Patel and other in the US and India has committed several frauds such as wire fraud, identification fraud, access device fraud, money laundering and impersonation of a federal officer or an employee, between the years 2013-2016.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick of the Southern District of Texas; Acting Executive Associate Director Alysa D. Enrichs of U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Inspector General J. Russell George of the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA); and Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) have made the announcement of Patel’s plea.
Benczkowski said that, the major role in the India-based fraud scheme which defrauded vulnerable Americans out of millions of dollars, has been played by Hitesh Patel. Benczkowski as praised the Singaporean colleagues and extended deep appreciation saying that, the resolution would not have occurred without their assistance.
Patel said that a scheme was headed by himself and his co-conspirators where the Internal Revenue Service and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services officials were impersonated by the employees at call centers in India.
They were engaged in telephone call scams for defrauding the indivisuals in the US. The victims were threatened of being arrested, imprisoned if they have not paid money to the government and were told to make the payment by wiring funds or with a money card that can be reloaded.
A co-defendant said that Patel was the main lead and that most of the other defendants worked for him. Patel was arrested in 2016 in India but was released as he had paid a bribe, says another defendant.
The sentencing of Patel is set for April 3 and he faces up to 20 years of imprisonment in Texas, Arizona and Georgia. The defendants were ordered to pay millions to the victims as restitution while some defendants have been deported because of illegal immigration status, another defendant had been involved in a separate conviction for immigration fraud for which he got his U.S citizenship revoked.
