Indian-origin man sentenced to nearly 4 years in prison for USD 1.5 million identity theft scheme

Vimalkumar Trivedi of Plainfield, Indiana, was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison, a statement issued here on Friday said.


   Authorities said Trivedi was part of an imposter scam that used scare tactics and identity theft to scam innocent victims out of hard-earned money.


After entering a plea of guilty to having fraudulent identification documents and running an unregistered money transfer company that cost victims USD 1.5 million in damages, a 41-year-old man of Indian descent was given a sentence of almost four years in jail.

According to a statement released here on Friday, Vimalkumar Trivedi of Plainfield, Indiana, was given a 46-month term in federal prison.


The sentence was given, and once Trivedi was released from federal prison, US Probation Office monitoring was mandated for three years by USDistrictCourt Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt.


Authorities claimed Trivedi was a participant in an impostor scheme that exploited identity theft and scare tactics to defraud unwitting victims of their hard-earned money.


According to court filings, Trivedi deceived several victims, including some elderly people, into sending money to different places, including Indianapolis, using courier services, between April 2017 and April 2021.

"Trivedi and his accomplices in the US and India pretended to be federal law enforcement officials and informed the victims that their Social Security numbers had been linked to illegal activity, frequently drug trafficking, when in fact they were not.The perpetrators threatened to have the victims imprisoned if they did not take out significant quantities of cash right away and ship it to fictional people, it added.

Trivedi located the money packages that had been sent by scam victims to the fake receivers and collected them up at various courier drop-off points.He falsely identified himself in each case by using the name of the designated package receiver.

Trivedi had a total of at least 53 fake identity documents, each with his image but different personal data.He picked up at least 122 shipments worth USD 901124 in the profits of the fraud using these bogus identity documents.

Trivedi used USD60,000 of the money taken from victims for himself and gave the rest to his friends.

Through the investigation, law enforcement officials were able to locate and authenticate the identities of around 17 victims, identify about 50 other victims who were thought to be at risk, and calculate the victims' losses at about USD1.5 million.

US Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana Zachary Myers stated that "international fraud conspiracies steal from hard-working people using lies, manipulation, and fear."

"These cruel criminals' heinous actions frequently destroy families and individual victims.The penalty in this instance shows that thieves looking to make a fast profit will pay dearly for their actions, Myers continued.

According to NCIS Norfolk Field Office Special Agent in Charge Welber Hickman, Trivedi's accomplices coerced and intimidated innocent victims into transferring him significant sums of money in a despicable scam for which he should be held completely responsible.


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