Chicago Man Gets Three Years for Telemarketing Scheme Defrauding Seniors
(photo: US Attorney’s Office)
India-West News Desk
CHICAGO, IL – A suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for laundering cash proceeds from a telemarketing scheme that defrauded elderly victims the Department of Justice said.
Hirenkumar P. Chaudhari used a phony Indian passport, false name, and false address to open multiple bank accounts in the US to receive money from victims of the telemarketing scheme. The scheme involved phone calls from people falsely claiming to be associated with, among other agencies, the Social Security Administration and the Department of Justice, stating that a victim’s identity had been stolen and that it was necessary to transfer money to various bank accounts, including the accounts opened by Chaudhari.
One of the victims was a retired nurse from Massachusetts who transferred a total of more than $900,000 from her bank and retirement accounts to accounts controlled by Chaudhari or others.
Chaudhari, 29, of Des Plaines, had pleaded guilty last year to a federal money laundering charge. In addition to the three-year prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis ordered Chaudhari to pay $6,500 in restitution to the Massachusetts victim.
The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kartik K. Raman and Rick D. Young.