Clean chit for Indian in call center scam

IRVING, TX — The Indian American owner of an IT company in Texas, Narashima Bhogavalli, who had previously been among dozens of individuals charged in an international call center scamming operation based in India, has been cleared of all charges.

Bhogavalli has had all charges against him dropped by the US government, his attorneys, the Kendall Law Group, announced. He had pled “not guilty” to the allegations.

The US Justice Department had announced the charges against 61 people in connection with the operation in October 2016.

Among the defendants were 32 people in India as well as Indian Americans, including Bhogavalli, Sunny Joshi, Rajesh Bhatt and Nilesh Pandya in Texas. Many of those indicted worked out of a network of call centers in Ahmedabad, India.

After a presentation by his defense lawyers to the prosecutors and the FBI, United States District Judge Sam Lindsay signed a court order dismissing the indictment against Bhogavalli.

As part of the scam, callers posing as tax and immigration agents threatened arrest, deportation or other punishment unless money was sent to help clear up what they said is a deportation warrant or to cover supposedly unpaid income taxes.

The government said the scam tricked at least 15,000 people into shelling out more than $300 million.