Indian American Man Sentenced for Role in Call-centers Related International Elder Fraud Scheme
- Jeel Patel, 22, of Duncan, South Carolina, worked for Bhavinkumar “Sunny” Patel, 28, of Richmond, Virginia, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison on April 8, 2022.
A young Indian American man from South Carolina has been sentenced to 51 months in prison for conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. According to the Department of Justice, Jeel Patel, 22, of Duncan, was part of an international fraud scheme originating from call centers in India that disproportionately targeted elders. The fraud occurred for roughly four months, from around February 2020 through June 2020, the DoJ said.
The call centers in India would “initially contact victims using automated robocalls designed to create a sense of urgency with the recipient,” the DoJ said. After making initial contact with victims, conspirators known as closers would impersonate government officials such as FBI or DEA agents, and “would trick and coerce victims into wiring funds to bank accounts controlled by the conspiracy, or shipping parcels of cash to addresses to which conspirators had access.”
Couriers, like Patel, working for the conspiracy would retrieve the victims’ stolen money, save a portion for themselves, and forward the remainder to the call center operators in India. Jeel Patel worked for Bhavinkumar “Sunny” Patel, 28, of Richmond, Virginia, who was previously prosecuted by the Eastern District of Virginia, and sentenced to 10 years in prison on April 8, 2022, the DoJ said. Sunny Patel operated a cell of couriers in several states that were responsible for losses exceeding $3 million to more than 120 victims.
During the brief, four-month period that Jeel Patel worked for Sunny Patel, he “retrieved or attempted to retrieve 14 packages from 10 different victims, with total actual losses of $485,020, the DoJ said. Additionally, Jeel Patel “participated in repeated home pickups during which he traveled to the residences of two different 80-year-old victims located in Michigan and South Carolina, and under the guise of being a DEA official took the money directly from the victims,” the DoJ said.