4 MORE INDIANS PLEAD GUILTY IN CALLCENTRE SCAM IN US

Four more Indians and a Pakistani-origin American have pleaded guilty in the past two weeks to charges of involvement in a massive “telephone impersonation fraud” and money laundering scheme run from call centres in Ahmedabad, the US department of justice said on Monday.

Hardik Patel, Rajubhai Patel, Viraj Patel and Dilipkumar A Patel were the four Indians and Fahad Ali was the Pakistan-descent man, taking the total number of those who have pleaded guilty in this case to nine, the department said, adding that in all 55 individuals and five Indiabased call centres were charged.

They are accused of involvement in a complex scheme in which individuals from call centres in India called Americans in the US posing as officers of the internal revenue service (the US income tax department) and the US citizenship and immigration services and demand fictional unpaid dues.

They would threaten their victims — whose identities were obtained from “data brokers” — with arrest, imprisonment, fines and deportation for failure to pay. Some paid just to avoid trouble. They would be told to pay through “stored value cards” or wire it. “Runners” such as Rajubhai Patel, Viraj Patel, Dilipkumar A Patel and Ali were tasked with collecting the money, laundering it and sending it to the call-centre using reloadable cards registered to genuine but stolen identities.

The justice department said Hardik Patel had owned a call centre in India and managed its daily operations before leaving for the United States.

THE NUMBER OF THOSE WHO PLEADED GUILTY IN THE CASE IS NINE; 55 INDIVIDUALS AND FIVE INDIABASED CALL CENTRES IN ALL

WERE CHARGED