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August 31, 2020

Man Sentenced in Connection with IRS Telephone Scam

On July 9, 2020, in the Northern District of Georgia, Joish Patel was sentenced for his role in a wire fraud conspiracy to defraud U. S. residents. Patel previously pled guilty to the offense in March 2020.

According to the court documents, Patel was identified as a runner in a telephone fraud scheme designed to target U.S. residents by misleading them into sending money in connection with a number of different confidence scams. In one of the scams, Patel and his coconspirators impersonated Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officers to defraud victims by misleading them into believing they owed money to the IRS and that they would be arrested if they did not pay immediately. As part of the scheme, Patel received more than $150,000 from at least 160 victims from August to November 2017. Patel used approximately 15 aliases to pick up wire transfers, in multiple States, from victims of the scams.

Patel was sentenced to 25 months in prison and three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $144,516.74 in restitution to his victims and a $100 special assessment fee.

    Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: N.D. Ga. Crim. Compl., filed Feb. 4, 2019; N.D. Ga. Indict., filed Mar. 5, 2019; and, N.D. Ga. Judgement, filed Jul. 13, 2020.