Indian national sentenced for wire fraud targeting elderly victims in Michigan
A participant in a scheme to defraud elderly or vulnerable adults of valuables such as gold and money is now facing over five years in federal prison - and will be deported afterward.
Kaushalkumar Chaudhary, 30, of India, was sentenced to 63 years in prison during a hearing Monday in federal court in Grand Rapids, the . Chaudhary was also ordered to pay $524,947 in restitution.
After he has served his sentence in the United States, Chaudhary will be deported to his home country, said Jared Murphey, Detroit acting special agent in charge for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations office.
"No American deserves to be the victim of financial crime, but it is especially abhorrent when the perpetrator wasn't in the country legally in the first place," Murphey said.
The Battle Creek Police Department worked with federal officials, including Homeland Security Investigations, on this case.
Chaudhary was a courier, known as a "money mule," in a conspiracy that targeted victims in both the United States and India during 2023 and 2024, the report said. The participants used the internet and cell phones to contact potential victims, making false claims on a variety of topics.
"These schemes included that the victims' social security account numbers had been compromised, that they were under federal investigation, or some other false reason why they should convert their financial holdings into cash, gold, and/or silver," the report said. "Conspirators often claimed to be members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, or some other government or law enforcement agency and falsely asserted that they could assist the victims in protecting their money."
Once those arrangements were made, someone would then meet the victims at their homes or other locations to pick up the valuables, then deliver the items to another conspirator in exchange for a share of the proceeds.
In one of the instances that federal authorities connected to Chaudhary, $70,000 worth of gold bars was picked up from a victim. Money and other valuables were taken from over a dozen other victims.
The Department of Justice's details a number of steps to avoid becoming a victim of such crimes and how to address it should activity become suspicious.
