Indian American Acting as Courier in Elderly Fraud Scheme Sentenced to Prison

HI INDIA NEWS DESK

DUNCAN, SC- An Indian-American man, from Duncan, South Carolina, Jeel Patel from has been sentenced to 51 months in prison. Patel has been found guilty of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud targeting the elderly. Patel was part of the scheme which originated from call centers in India that primarily targeted elders. These fraud services operated by initially contacting victims using automated robocalls designed to create a sense of urgency with the recipients. The conspirators would then impersonate government officials such as FBI or DEA agents.

They would then would trick victims into wiring funds to bank accounts controlled by the conspiracy, or shipping parcels of cash to addresses to which conspirators had access to. Couriers working for the conspiracy would retrieve the victims’ stolen money, keep a portion for themselves, and forward the remainder to the call center operators in India. Jeel Patel operated as a courier and was working for working for Bhavinkumar ‘Sunny’ Patel, who has already been prosecuted by the Eastern District of Virginia. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in April 2022.