Calif. Man Pleads Guilty of Participating in International Conspiracy to Defraud the Elderly
- Anuj Mahendrabhai Patel of Lake Elsinore and his co-conspirators helped collect more than $500,000 in cash by pretending to be federal agents.
A California man pleaded guilty on March 30 of charges of conning elderly people along with other co-conspirators. Anuj Mahendrabhai Patel, 31, a.k.a. “Mike” and “Indio,” of Lake Elsinore, participated in an international conspiracy where he helped collect more than $500,000 in cash conned out of elderly victims by pretending to be federal agents threatening the victims with arrest on bogus warrants, according to a Department of Justice press release. Patel pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud.
According to the plea agreement, from April 2019 to March 2020, Patel participated in an international conspiracy that deceived elderly victims out of their money. Other members of the conspiracy, some of whom are believed to be in India, telephoned victims and pretended to be government employees or law enforcement officers. Using several false pretenses – including phony badge numbers and using spoofed government telephone numbers – the co-conspirators convinced the victims, most of whom were elderly, that their identities or assets were in trouble.
The victims were ordered to send the parcels through shipping companies that allowed parcel recipients to pick up parcels so long as the recipients had identification matching the names listed on the parcel as the addressees. The addresses the defendants gave primarily were at locations in Riverside County, but also in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
Patel admitted he used tracking numbers to monitor the victims’ parcels, and communicated with couriers, who used fraudulent identification documents matching the names listed on the parcels as addresses. The couriers were indented as Elmer Miranda Barrios, 36, a.k.a. “Welbin Raul Mejia” and “Joe Rodriguez,” and William Margarito Barrios, 36, Elmer Barrios’s cousin, both of Lake Elsinore.
Barrios pleaded guilty on Jan. 4 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, and was sentenced on March 29 and was given a time-served sentence of five months in federal prison and was ordered released to immigration authorities for deportation. Barrios is scheduled to go on trial in this matter on May 4.
Patel also admitted to receiving or intending to receive 18 packages sent by victims. The total loss in this case is approximately $541,420 and Patel admitted the scheme involved at least 10 victims, many of whom he knew were vulnerable people.