Punjab-origin man pleads guilty to operating illegal business in US

NEW YORK: A 24-year old Indianorigin man has pleaded guilty to operating an unlicensed money transmitting business that provided essential services to a fraudulent technical-support company and forwarded proceeds received during the scam to India-based scheme operators.

Dapinderjeet Singh of Newark, California, pleaded guilty last week to one-count felony information before United States District Judge Percy Anderson, the Justice Department announced. Singh is scheduled to be sentenced on November 2.

Singh admitted that he owned and operated Alpha Technologies, which claimed to offer technical-support services to the public. However, Alpha was simply a conduit for funds to be transmitted from victims of a technical-support fraud scam to its perpetrators.

According to court documents, an India-based call centre lied to victims about virus and hacking attacks on their computers and induced victims to send money to Alpha Technologies to fix their computers. Singh, through Alpha Technologies, received victim proceeds and forwarded them to India-based scheme operators.

United States attorney Nick Hanna said Singh provided a service to criminals behind an international fraud by providing what appeared to be a legitimate business, but in reality was simply a funnel to direct stolen funds to con artists.

Singh admitted that he worked with India-based scheme operators from late 2016 until February 2018. In addition to opening Alpha Technologies as a corporate entity, Singh maintained post office boxes that were used to receive payments sent by victims, and he forwarded proceeds to scheme operators in India and elsewhere. Through Alpha, Singh engaged in a money transmitting business that was neither licensed by the State of California, nor registered with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network or the US department of treasury.

Three other individuals previously have been charged in this investigation.