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Hitesh Madhubhai Patel (a/k/a Hitesh Hinglaj) of Ahmedabad, India, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his role in operating and funding call centers that defrauded U.S. victims out of millions of dollars between 2013 and 2016.
Patel, an Indian national, was prosecuted in the United States after being extradited from Singapore in 2019. Singapore authorities apprehended Patel at the request of the United States pursuant to a provisional arrest warrant in September 2018, after Patel flew there from India.
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Patel had already pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme. As part of the scheme, scammers utilized a network of call centers in India, including in cities like Ahmedabad, to call potential victims in the United States. Ahmedabad is the sixth-largest city in India with a population of 6.5 million (larger than any city in the U.S. except for New York City, and more than twice the size of Chicago).
Using personally identifiable information obtained from a number of sources, including social media, scammers impersonated agents from the IRS or US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Calls were typically made using VoIP (voice over internet protocol) technology that allowed the scammers to “spoof” the phone numbers, making it appear that the calls were coming from the IRS or other government agency. As part of the scam, taxpayers were told to pay fake tax bills immediately or face arrest, deportation, or other…
