Business

Two PIO plead guilty to debit card extortion scam

PTI

Two Indian-Americans on Wednesday pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to extort their victims to load prepaid debit cards with funds that were stolen as part of a scam running into more than $5.8 million.

Alpeshkumar Patel, 31, and Vijaykumar Patel, 40, pleaded guilty before a US District Judge in New Jersey to the charges of conspiracy to commit the wire fraud.

The charge is punishable by a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offence.

The duo who are not related admitted that from September 2013 to March 2014, they were part of a conspiracy to steal money using reloadable debit cards, said the court documents.

The two would first purchase reloadable Green Dot Cards, and register them in names other than theirs.