A woman accused of being part of a money laundering call center scam was arrested Tuesday in central Georgia, court records show.
Trusha Chaudhary is accused of being part of a money laundering plot against elderly people in Ohio and Illinois, according to the indictment. According to court records, she was one of the conspirators living in the U.S. to facilitate transactions between elderly people and perpetrators at an India-based call center. She made her first appearance in federal court in Macon on Tuesday, but her case will be transferred to Ohio.
While Shreyas Chaudhary lived in India, Trusha Chaudhary and Raval lived in the US to facilitate transactions between the elders and perpetrators in the call center.
Chaudhary was arrested and charged in Middle Georgia because she lived in the region, but the case is actually in Ohio, according to Melissa Hodges, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Georgia. Chaudhary will be transported to Ohio where the case will take place.
Chaudhary is one of three conspirators charged in the case, court records show. The others are Yash Raval and Shreyas Baldevbhai Chaudhary. Shreyas Chaudhary was also arrested in Georgia. IIt is unclear whether Raval has been detained.
How the call center scam worked
The indictment describes how the alleged scammers would steal money from the elderly. A scammer posing as a customer service representative at a company or bank would call victims, usually elderly, and claim that their account at the company or bank had been hacked. Then, another scammer, posing as a law enforcement officer, would validate the story and suggest victims move their money to a third-party account for protection, according to the indictment.
The scammers would coordinate the transfer with the elders to accounts controlled by the suspects. They would then transfer the money without the elders knowing. They would also encourage victims to withdraw money and hand it over to the alleged scammers or have them buy valuables, usually gold, to send to the perpetrators, the indictment said.
In some cases, the alleged scammers had their victims send their money to a UPS access point, where they would collect the money using fake IDs, the indictment said.
Two unnamed elders, both over the age of 60, were identified in the indictment as victims of the India-based call center scam. One of the elders was told to send money to a UPS access point in Riverdale, Illinois, where Trusha Chaudhary tried to pick it up and send it to another conspirator, the indictment said.
Another elder from Salem, Ohio, was ordered to withdraw $50,000 from his bank account and hand it over to an alleged scammer. On Shreyas Chaudhary’s instructions, Raval went to the elder’s house to collect the money, the complaint said.
Charges are just charges and the three suspects have not yet been found guilty in court.