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July 29, 2019

Six Individuals Sentenced for Their Roles in Sophisticated Impersonation Fraud

Between March 25, 2019 and May 29, 2019, in the Middle District of Florida, six defendants were sentenced for their roles in a conspiracy involving a sophisticated Internal Revenue Service (IRS) impersonation and loan scam. The defendants had previously been charged with their respective offenses in 2018.

According to court documents, beginning August 2014 and continuing until June 2016, the defendants, in connection with India-based call centers, participated in a scam in which callers impersonated IRS employees or loan officers to extort money from U.S. residents. The callers induced fear in their victims by threatening them with prosecution and/or arrest for purported Federal tax violations or unpaid loans, unless the victims paid alleged taxes, fines, and/or fees immediately. Some of the victims were instructed to purchase prepaid stored-value cards and then provide the unique serial numbers of those cards to the caller or payment processor, an individual who instructs victims to make payments and facilitates the movement of victims’ funds throughout the United States. Other victims were directed to transmit money using money services businesses or to deposit money into various bank accounts. If a victim was defrauded through prepaid stored-value cards, the conspirators would obtain general purpose reloadable (GPR) debit cards and transmit the unique identification numbers on those cards via interstate and foreign wire communications to other conspirators. Those individuals activated the GPR cards by registering them online or by telephone, using the personally identifiable information of U.S. residents without their consent. Conspirators would then either withdraw fraudulent proceeds from the GPR cards, retrieve fraudulent proceeds from the money-transmitter services, or withdraw fraudulent proceeds from bank accounts.

Defendants Hemalkumar Shah and Nishitkumar Patel served dual roles in this scheme. As domestic managers, they recruited, hired, and directed runners to pick up funds wired by victims, directed runners to open bank accounts to receive fraudulent proceeds, provided runners with transportation, collected fraudulent proceeds from runners, and disbursed fraudulent proceeds in accordance with directives received from conspirators in India. As runners, they would purchase GPR cards and forward the card numbers to conspirators, purchase money orders and obtain cash using GPR cards funded with fraudulent proceeds, retrieve cash payments made by victims via money-transmitter services, and retrieve victims’ funds that had been deposited into bank accounts. Shah and Niskitkumar Patel had previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Sharvil Patel’s role in this scheme was that of a domestic manager, and he had previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The roles of defendants Alejandro Juarez and Brenda Dozier were to pick up fraudulently-obtained funds from money-transmitter services that had been wired by the victims and then either to provide cash to other U.S.-based conspirators and/or to deposit the funds into U.S. bank accounts as directed. Both had previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to court documents, defendant Anthony Trujillo knowingly received stolen monies valued at $5,000 or more by transporting said monies from California to Florida. Trujillo had previously pled guilty to possession and receipt of stolen, unlawfully converted, or taken property.

The cumulative total of the prison sentences for defendants Sharvil Patel, Shah, Nishitkumar Patel, Juarez, and Dozier is 333 months. Further, each term is to be followed by 36 months of supervised release. Trujillo was sentenced to 60 months’ probation. The defendants will be required to pay more than $3.1 million in restitution.

Source:  The facts in this case narrative come from the following publicly available documents: M.D. Fla. Indict. filed Oct. 11, 2018; M.D. Fla. Infos. filed Oct 26, 2018; M.D. Fla. Superseding Info. filed Dec. 12, 2018; M.D. Fla. Plea Agreements filed Dec. 14, 2018, Dec. 17, 2018, Dec. 18, 2018, Dec. 27, 2018, Jan. 14, 2019, and Jan. 29, 2019; and M.D. Fla. Judgments filed Mar. 26, 2019, Apr. 1, 2019, Apr. 8, 2019, Apr. 18, 2019, May 1, 2019, and May 30, 2019.