Federal authorities cracked an IRS scam ring that spanned several states including New Jersey and New York that had nearly a dozen conspirators captured and sent to jail.
According to a statement released by federal authorities, twenty-one members of a massive India-based fraud and money laundering conspiracy faced sentencing hearings this week in Houston, Texas.
Authorities say the defendants had ties to India-based call centers that targeted U.S. residents and cheated thousands out of hundreds of millions of dollars.
According to authorities, the defendants admitted that between 2012 and 2016, they, together with their co-conspirators, perpetrated a fraud and money laundering scheme originating from a network of call centers in Ahmedabad, India.
As part of the scheme, scammers impersonated officials from the IRS or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Victims were threatened with arrest, imprisonment, fines or deportation if they did not pay money, including back taxes and fines, allegedly owed to the government.
Scammers instructed victims to send payment, usually via debit or gift cards or by wire. Once the payment had been made, runners based in the U.S. would liquidate and launder the extorted funds as quickly as possible. Runners typically earned a specific fee or a percentage of the funds in the scam authorities said.