A 22-year-old Indian national who traveled into the United States on a visitor visa to collect cash and gold from scam victims has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for his role in a $3.7 million fraud scheme that targeted at least 15 people across multiple states, including a New Berlin couple who handed over more than half a million dollars in gold coins before police intervened.
Roshan Shah was sentenced on July 27 in Milwaukee federal court after pleading guilty in June to conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to WISN-TV. A federal judge also ordered Shah to pay $4.2 million in restitution. U.S. District Judge Brett Ludwig presided over the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zachary Corey and Peter Smyczek, per the U.S. Department of Justice.
Shah, who was attending college in Canada on a student visa, was recruited as an in-person courier tasked with traveling into the U.S. solely to pick up cash and gold from targeted victims, according to the Justice Department. In a letter to the court, Shah said a friend had offered him what he believed was a parcel service job that only required a driver’s license and an American visa, per the same account referenced by WISN-TV.
A New Berlin Couple’s Costly Ordeal
Among Shah’s victims was a New Berlin couple who gave away $526,095.40 in gold coins to couriers over three encounters spanning three weeks, according to WISN-TV’s reporting. Scammers had convinced them their bank accounts were compromised and told them to buy gold or withdraw cash so an agent could pick it up for safekeeping in a Washington, D.C. safe deposit box, a deception tactic detailed by The New Indian Express…