A Gujarat-born man has been sentenced to more than nine years in a US federal prison for his role in a financial fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims, with his lawyer citing his childhood in extreme poverty in India as a mitigating factor.

Shreyas Baldevbhai Chaudhary was sentenced by US District Judge J Philip Calabrese in Cleveland to 110 months, or nine years and two months, in prison. He was also ordered to pay $5.16 million in restitution.

His associate, Trusha Chaudhary, was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $343,641 in restitution. Another member of the operation, Nitinkumar Raval, was sentenced last December to between 19 and 41 months in federal prison and ordered to pay $224,902.

How The Elderly Scam Worked

The fraud operation ran from December 2022 through December 2023 and involved tricking victims into believing their computers or identities had been compromised.

In one case, an elderly man from Salem, Massachusetts, clicked on a pop-up advertisement in October 2023 that falsely claimed his computer had a security problem. He called the phone number displayed in the message and was connected to individuals who told him he had become a victim of identity theft.

The victim was initially instructed to purchase $11,000 worth of gift cards. He was later persuaded to withdraw around $61,000 and then another $50,000 from his bank.

The bank became suspicious and alerted the FBI.

FBI Arrests Courier

Investigators arrested Raval when he arrived to collect money from a victim. During the investigation, authorities learned that he had been instructed by a man using the alias “Al Capone”.

Investigators later identified “Al Capone” as Chaudhary.

According to prosecutors, Chaudhary directed couriers who travelled to different locations across the United States to collect cash and other valuables from victims.

The FBI arrested Chaudhary in 2024 as investigators continued to uncover the scale of the operation.

Lawyer Cites Extreme Poverty In India

Chaudhary’s lawyer asked the court to consider his difficult childhood while determining his sentence.

According to the defence filing, Chaudhary was born and raised in Ampura, a rural area of Gujarat, and grew up in extreme poverty.

The filing said his family faced water shortages, lived in a poorly maintained home and that Chaudhary slept on a mattress on the floor.

His lawyer also said Chaudhary had received only a 10th-grade education and spoke very little English.

He reportedly obtained his first job at the age of 22 and earned about $10.49 a month.

The defence acknowledged that Chaudhary did not dispute the illegal nature of his conduct but argued that his upbringing and economic circumstances should be considered by the court.

Despite the plea for leniency, the court sentenced Chaudhary to 110 months in federal prison and ordered him to pay more than $5 million in restitution to victims.