'Prominent' Indian-American charged with defrauding community members
Darpan News Desk IANS, 19 Jan, 2023 04:07 PM
New York, Jan 20 (IANS) A Federal prosecutor has charged a "prominent" Indian-American of using his standing in the community to rip off others in a real estate scam that promised high rates of returns.
Michael Easley, the federal prosecutor for eastern North Carolina, announced on Tuesday that Kumar Arun Neppalli, 56, has been charged with defrauding 12 people.
"Our investigation shows Neppalli abused the trust and confidence placed in him by fellow Indian-American community members," Federal Bureau of Investigation official Michael C. Scherck, said.
"Now, multiple victims are left without their much-needed savings," he added.
A court document said, "Neppalli was a respected and prominent member of the local Indian-American community, which enabled him to gain the trust of other members of the same community."
The charges were filed against him on December 21 but were held under seal and released only on Tuesday after Neppalli appeared in the court.
Often charges or other court documents are sealed while investigations continue so that the information cannot be manipulated by the accused.
As an employee of Chapel Hill town in North Carolina, he allegedly claimed to have "insider knowledge" to convince the victims, the charge-sheet said.
The town websites identify him as an engineering services manager.
In the alleged scheme that began in May 2017 and continued till at least May 2021, Neppalli collected money from people promising to invest in real estate, according to court papers.
However, the documents said, he used the money collected from investors to pay the previous investors without actually making the investments he promised and using some of it to pay off debts or for "personal enrichment".
These kinds of deals are known as "Ponzi" schemes in which showing returns to some early investors with payments from later investors build a false sense of trust in more people.
In one of his emails to an alleged victim identified only as "R.A." in court documents, Neppalli said that "you get $10,300 profit" on an investment of $54,000.
The alleged victims have been identified only by their initials in court documents that listed payments made to and received from Neppalli.
Mystery deepened in the case of a kidnapped Indian-origin family in California as officials reported that a person was taken into custody in connection with the case after he attempted suicide and the truck belonging to one of the victims was found burning. But still missing is the kidnapped family - eight-month-old baby Aroohi Dheri, her parents, Jasleen Kaur, 27, and Jasdeep Singh, 36, and uncle, Amandeep Singh, 39.
The R37.7 million (Rs 17.2 crore) fraud case against two Indian-origin associates of the Gupta brothers has been postponed. The Estina dairy farm project was reportedly supposed to empower black farmers. But bank statements showed that it was being used to swindle cash, with high-profile government officials. The money was paid into the company's Bank of Baroda account in India.
The lawsuit has been filed against Colorado-based Global Medical Response (GMR), and companies under it, American Medical Response (AMR) and its subsidiaries, for turning away a qualified paramedic in midst of a global pandemic. In November 2020, AMR dismissed Singh after he requested and was denied personal protective equipment (PPE) that would accommodate his turban and beard.
Merced County Sheriff's Office on Monday, said in a statement that 36-year-old Jasdeep Singh, 27-year-old Jasleen Kaur, their eight-month-old child and relative 39-year-old Amandeep Singh were taken "against their will from a business." They have asked for public's help in locating the four missing persons.
In Dongara, some 351 km northwest of Perth, more than a century-old leather-bound book containing entries written in Gurmukhi - the official script of the Punjabi language - has been found.
The winners include Karina Samuel, 17, from Florida; Karun Kaushik, 17, from California; Laalitya Acharya, 18, from Ohio; and Sri Nihal Tammana, 13, from New Jersey. Established in 2001 by author T.A.Barron, the Barron Prize is a non-profit organisation annually honouring 25 outstanding young leaders from ages 8 to 18.
