A leader in an India-based scam that scared American taxpayers into sending millions of dollars because they thought the US government was after them was sentenced today to more than 14 years in prison by a judge who said he wanted to send a message to others considering similar crimes.
Sahil Patel, 36, of Tatamy, Pennsylvania, sobbed as he apologized for his crimes before he was sentenced by US.
District Judge Alvin K Hellerstein in Manhattan for conspiring to extort, to impersonate government officials and to commit wire fraud.
The judge said he needed to impose a "very serious sentence" to ensure adequate deterrence.
Patel also must forfeit USD 1 million for crimes that stretched from December 2011 until his December 2013 arrest.
"The nature of this crime robbed people of their identities and their money in a way that causes people to feel they have been almost destroyed," Hellerstein said.
Assistant US Attorney Andrew Adams told the judge the fraud was "perfectly designed" to manipulate financially distressed people who would fear arrest threats.
"This is such an exploitive fraud," Adams said. "This man preyed on hundreds of people who were particularly vulnerable."
Prosecutors said in court papers that callers in India impersonated law enforcement officials, sometimes threatening victims with financial penalties and arrest, and used an Internet-based calling service that made it appear their phone numbers came from the FBI or the federal prosecutor's office in Manhattan.
As part of a presentence submission, prosecutors noted that the US Treasury inspector general for tax administration, which investigates crimes for the Internal Revenue Service, reports receiving 9,000 to 12,000 reports of calls each week over similar scams.
The IRS calls it the largest impersonation scam in the tax agency's history.
Since 2013, about 591,000 people have complained of calls from fake IRS agents demanding money and 3,967 people as of Monday have reported losing more than USD 20 million.
Although Patel was described as a ringleader, his prosecution has not slowed the calls, with 10,000 additional complaints being made in the last week.
The inspector general's office has said the typical victim loses USD 5,000 to USD 7,000.
While the scam has touched people in nearly every state, the top five states for dollar losses were listed as California at USD 3.8 million, New York at USD 1.3 million, Texas at USD 795,884, Florida at USD 760,000 and Virginia at USD 648,363, prosecutors said.
