WEB DESK
A 28-year-old Indian national in the US has pleaded guilty for his role in a multi-million dollar scam in which individuals from call centres located in India impersonated US tax and immigration officials to defraud victims across America.
Harsh Patel, who most recently lived in New Jersey, is the third Indian national to have pleaded guilty to this scam that targeted hundreds of Americans.
Till date, Patel, over 50 other individuals and five India-based call centres have been charged for their roles in the fraud and money laundering scheme in an indictment returned by a federal grand jury last year in October.
He pleaded guilty before US District Court Judge David Hittner of the Southern District of Texas.
Sentencing is scheduled for August 7, 2017. According to admissions made in connection with the plea, Patel and his co-conspirators perpetrated a complex scheme in which individuals from call centres located in Ahmedabad impersonated officials from the Internal Revenue Service or US Citizenship and Immigration Services in a ruse designed to defraud victims located throughout the United States, the
Department of Justice said in a statement.
Patel is the third Indian national to have pleaded guilty in the call centre scam.