On September 21, 2023, in the District of Maryland, Satbir Thukral was indicted for extortion and attempted witness tampering.  Thukral was employed as an information technology manager for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), assigned to an office in Lanham, Maryland. He had a supervisory role in connection with contracts between the IRS and various businesses.
 
The victim and Thukral had attended school together and remained in touch afterwards. The victim was the president of a professional services firm. In March 2018, the victim provided their resume to Thukral who passed the resume within the IRS, to a contractor and elsewhere for purposes of hiring the victim’s firm as a subcontractor. The victim’s firm was ultimately hired as a subcontractor by two consulting firms that had prime contracts with the IRS to perform information technology services. In October 2018, Thukral demanded that the victim pay him a portion of earnings from the subcontracts, to include earnings from two additional employees who the victim had hired to work on the subcontracts. Thukral claimed that he enabled the victim’s employment and that there would be consequences if the victim did not pay. From approximately October 2018 through December 2020, the victim paid Thukral a portion of earnings totaling approximately $120,000. The victim made these payments out of fear that Thukral would cause economic and reputational harm if they did not pay.

In February 2023, the victim informed Thukral that they had been approached by Federal investigators inquiring about cash withdrawals that they had made from their bank accounts. Thukral attempted to persuade the victim to deceive the Federal investigators about the reason for the cash withdrawals and about Thukral’s extortion scheme.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available document: D. Md. Indict., filed Sept. 21, 2023