IRS Impersonation Scam: Patel Pleads Guilty to $Millions Laundered

HOUSTON – Harsh Patel, 28, an Indian national formerly of Piscataway, New Jersey, admitted today to his role in a sprawling, multimillion-dollar fraud and money laundering operation. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in the Southern District of Texas, a scheme that preyed on vulnerable Americans through deceptive phone calls.

The Department of Justice, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security- Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG), jointly announced the guilty plea. Acting U.S. Attorney Abe Martinez of the Southern District of Texas and Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division oversaw the case.

According to court documents, Patel was a key “runner” in the network, responsible for liquidating and laundering funds obtained by call center operators in Ahmedabad, India. These operators impersonated officials from the IRS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), terrifying victims with threats of arrest, imprisonment, fines, or deportation unless they paid fabricated debts. Victims were strong-armed into sending money via stored value cards and wire transfers. Patel’s job was to turn that illicit cash into clean funds.

Since January 2015, Patel operated primarily in New Jersey, California, and Illinois, purchasing reloadable cards using stolen personal information. He then liquidated these cards, converting the funds into money orders deposited into various bank accounts, pocketing a cut of the stolen money for himself. He also admitted to using fraudulent identification documents provided by his India-based co-conspirators to receive wire transfers from victims. Communication with those co-conspirators occurred frequently through the WhatsApp messaging application.

Patel is the third defendant to plead guilty in this massive case. Bharatkumar Patel, aka Bharat Patel, 43, and Ashvinbhai Chaudhari, 28, previously entered guilty pleas on April 13, 2017, and April 26, 2017, respectively. An indictment returned on October 19, 2016, initially charged 56 individuals and five India-based call centers. All remaining defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Sentencing for Harsh Patel is scheduled for August 7, 2017, before U.S. District Court Judge David Hittner. The investigation was a collaborative effort involving numerous federal, state, and local agencies, including the Ft. Bend County Sheriff’s Office, police departments in Hoffman Estates and Naperville, Illinois, and Leonia, New Jersey, and international cooperation through INTERPOL Washington. The full scope of the fraud and the amount of money stolen remain under investigation.