Alexandria, VA – In a shocking revelation, Amit Chaudhry, 44, of Ashburn, was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in a sophisticated and large-scale identity theft and credit card fraud conspiracy that resulted in a loss of over $25 million. Chaudhry was also ordered to pay $4.1 million in restitution.
Chaudhry pleaded guilty on September 22, 2016, to charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy to commit visa fraud. According to court documents, Chaudhry is an Indian national who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2005. Beginning in 2011, Chaudhry was part of a large, international wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy that involved processing stolen credit card numbers and laundering the proceeds through hundreds of bank accounts.
Some of these bank accounts were set up in the name of shell companies, which did no real business. This fraud and money laundering conspiracy was carried out in part by teams of individuals working together in India, the United States, Europe, and elsewhere. Some members would obtain the personal identifying information of real people; other members would obtain the credit card information from actual credit card customers, and yet others would be responsible for electronically processing the stolen credit card transactions.
Chaudhry helped launder the proceeds of the credit card fraud and assisted co-conspirators who would come to the United States from India to open bank accounts used to hold and receive fraud proceeds. According to court documents, Chaudhry also helped conceal and launder proceeds from a fraud scheme that targeted customers seeking cheap travel, including airline tickets and hotel reservations.
Chaudhry helped to promote the fraudulent travel websites, including through mass mailings to prospective customers. Other members of the conspiracy would hold themselves out as prospective travel agents to customers. Customers’ travel itineraries would be purchased with stolen credit cards, which often resulted in those reservations being canceled. The customer’s money would be held and transferred among bank accounts controlled by members of the conspiracy, including Chaudhry.
There were more than 1,000 victims from this fraud, which used various sophisticated means to conceal the identities of the conspirators. According to court documents, Chaudhry was also involved in a separate money laundering conspiracy with Jacqueline Green-Morris, who previously pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy.
Chaudhry and Green-Morris came up with a fraudulent billing scheme, whereby Chaudhry would submit inflated and fraudulent invoices for IT training to Victim A, a contractor based in Virginia. Green-Morris used her position as an employee at Victim A to pay these fraudulent invoices. Chaudhry and Green-Morris split the fraud proceeds, which totaled approximately $4.1 million between 2012 and June 2016.
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Key Facts
- State: Virginia
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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