Close X
Monday, November 18, 2024
ADVT 
International

Indian Immigrant Sentenced To 9 Years In Prison For $25 Million-Dollar Fraud Scheme In US

Darpan News Desk, 03 Mar, 2017 11:22 AM
  • Indian Immigrant Sentenced To 9 Years In Prison For $25 Million-Dollar Fraud Scheme In US
The FBI caught hint of the scam after the group used images of fake passports, including one that featured Canadian actress Laura Vandervoort's image from a television show.
 
An Indian-American man has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for a multi-million dollar fraud scheme.
 
Amit Chaudhry, 44, from Ashburn, Virginia, pleaded guilty on September 21 last year to identity theft, money laundering and visa fraud.
 
"I never really dreamt of being a felon. This is going to haunt me for the rest of my life," Chaudhry said in Alexandria federal court on Thursday before being sentenced, the Washington Post reported.
 
According to the report, Chaudhry, who emigrated from India in 1992, helped his relatives overseas to operate a multimillion-dollar scam that involved money laundering from stolen credit cards and identities through shell bank accounts.
 
He was also part of a related scheme, advertising cheap travel packages. Clients' money would be stolen and their hotel and airfare would be paid for with stolen credit cards.
 
They also made more than $25 million off fake credit cards with the help of a co-conspirator working at American Express in India, the Washington Post report said. 
 
 
The group also used images of fake passports.
 
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) uncovered the scheme in part when an agent recognised a photo in one passport as actress Laura Vandervoot. The photo was taken from a scene of her television show "V" involving visas.
 
"What we're dealing with here is not a casual wrong turn," said Jeffrey Abish, the chief information officer for the defrauded company ActioNet. 
 
Chaudhry sent inflated and imagined IT invoices to the company, netting $4.1 million that he has now pledged to repay, according to the report.
 
Defence attorney Danny Onorato told The Post that "this was all done out of family loyalty".
 
Onorato added that Chaudhry has been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, which might help explain his behaviour.
 
However, Assistant US Attorney Katherine Wong protested Onorato's argument, saying: "Asperger's doesn't cause anyone to steal or open credit card accounts in someone else's name."
 
Chaudhry is cooperating with authorities, who are still finding more victims and tracking down co-conspirators in the US and abroad. 

MORE International ARTICLES

Indian-American Sues Car Dealer For Not Selling Mercedes Over Taliban Concerns

Indian-American Sues Car Dealer For Not Selling Mercedes Over Taliban Concerns
New Jersey Dealer Refuses Sale Of Mercedes To Indian Man Fearing He'd 'Sell It To The Taliban'

Indian-American Sues Car Dealer For Not Selling Mercedes Over Taliban Concerns

Congress's Amarinder Singh Storms Into Police Station, Warns Officials Of 'Fake' Cases

During the 'Halke Vich Captain' programme, more than 4000 people submitted 2873 complaints among which over 60 per cent pertained to "fake FIRs", a party spokesman said.

Congress's Amarinder Singh Storms Into Police Station, Warns Officials Of 'Fake' Cases

Pakistani Man Who Killed Ahmadiya Muslim Shopkeeper For Disrespecting Islam Jailed In UK

Pakistani Man Who Killed Ahmadiya Muslim Shopkeeper For Disrespecting Islam Jailed In UK
Tanveer Ahmed, a Sunni Muslim from Pakistan, stabbed Asad Shah outside his store in the Shawlands area of Scotland in March.

Pakistani Man Who Killed Ahmadiya Muslim Shopkeeper For Disrespecting Islam Jailed In UK

Intolerance Towards Muslims Rising Due To Donald Trump, Say Gold Star Parents Khizr And Ghazala Khan

Intolerance Towards Muslims Rising Due To Donald Trump, Say Gold Star Parents Khizr And Ghazala Khan
In a fresh attack on Donald Trump's poll rhetoric, the parents of a fallen Pakistani-origin American soldier have blamed the controversial Republican presidential nominee for growing intolerance towards Muslims in the US.

Intolerance Towards Muslims Rising Due To Donald Trump, Say Gold Star Parents Khizr And Ghazala Khan

Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin Asks Pakistan To Snap Ties With India

Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin Asks Pakistan To Snap Ties With India
Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin asked Pakistan to snap diplomatic ties with India if a “peaceful solution” to the ongoing violence in Kashmir is not reached. 

Hizbul Mujahideen Chief Syed Salahuddin Asks Pakistan To Snap Ties With India

A Star Rises From Poverty, Is Killed Defying Pakistan Norms

A Star Rises From Poverty, Is Killed Defying Pakistan Norms
Qandeel Baloch's story is that of a girl from one of the poorest, most backward areas of Pakistan who emerged to transfix a nation 

A Star Rises From Poverty, Is Killed Defying Pakistan Norms