Utkarsh Thakur, Money Laundering, Massachusetts 2022

A scheme to launder the proceeds of various telephone fraud scams has come to an end in Massachusetts, with a Springfield man sentenced to prison time and restitution.

Utkarsh Thakur, 29, was sentenced by U.S. Senior District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to two years in prison and three years of supervised release.

Thakur was also ordered to pay restitution of $1,535,518.

Between January and August 2021, Thakur’s co-conspirators called victims over the phone pretending to be individuals in positions of authority, such as law enforcement, and threatening the victims in order to obtain money.

For example, Thakur’s co-conspirators threatened that the victims would be arrested or lose public assistance benefits if they did not mail cash to fictitious individuals at addresses in Massachusetts.

Thakur obtained fake identification cards in the names of those fictitious individuals, retrieved the cash mailed by the victims and transported the cash to others involved in the scheme.

In total, Thakur laundered more than $1.5 million in victim funds and kept a portion of those funds for himself.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/springfield-man-sentenced-money-laundering-conspiracy