Des Plaines man gets 16-year prison sentence for telemarketing scam
A Des Plaines man who authorities called the ringleader of a multimillion dollar international telemarketing scam has been sentenced to nearly 16 years in federal prison.
Sohil Usmangani Vahora, 39, was sentenced last week by a federal judge in Houston, after pleading guilty in 2023 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, authorities said.
Vahora also must pay more than $3.5 million restitution to dozens of victims, more than 80% of whom were elderly, according to federal prosecutors. And though he’s a legal permanent resident, the native of India could now lose that status, officials said.
Authorities say that between 2017 and 2020, Vahora and his co-conspirators utilized call centers in India to defraud people across the country out of as much as $11 million.
One common scheme duped victims into believing they were under investigation by law enforcement, prosecutors said. The “federal authority” on the phone would convince the victim the only way to clear his or her name was to buy gift cards and transfer the redemption codes to the call center or mail cash in a package to a name and address the call center provided.
Runners in the U.S. controlled by Vahora and his partners would then deplete the gift card funds and pick up the packages, authorities said.
Court statements from 33 victims or their family members described “relentless” phone calls, financial hardship and feelings of shame Vahora and his co-conspirators caused, prosecutors say.
“He saw the money flowing through his organization as nothing more than dollar signs, ignoring the foreign fraudsters who stole money and dashed dreams using a script of fear and lies,” said Alamdar S. Hamdani, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas.
Co-defendant Zaheen Rafikbhai Malvi, 30, of Heber Springs, Arkansas, pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine when sentenced Dec. 9.