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Ashish Bajaj, 29, of India, will have to serve out the entire term because there’s no parole in the federal prison system.
U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty also sentenced Bajaj to two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $2.4 million in restitution to his victims.
Bajaj lived in different parts of the United States, including New Rochelle, NY, and Anaheim, CA, federal authorities said.
Posing as fraud prevention specialists, he and a group of conspirators told victims that their banks, online retailers, or online payments companies were being targeted for fraud, an FBI complaint on file in U.S. District Court in Newark says.
They then convinced the victims to help them in a purported sting operation designed to catch the perpetrators, it says.
Some victims sent money to bank accounts that Bajaj held in the U.S. under the name Crypto E Service LLC, federal authorities charged. Others wired money to various banks located in China, India, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates, they said.
Some were even convinced to send cash and cashier checks to Bajaj at a California address, the FBI complaint says.
Bajaj and the conspirators told the victims they’d get their money back within a few days of the supposed sting operation, but that never happened, it says.
FBI agents arrested Bajaj in North Caroline in August 2021 and charged him with conspiring to commit wire fraud.
Rather than risk the outcome of a trial, Bajaj took a deal from the government, pleading guilty to conspiracy a year after his arrest.
U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip Sellinger credited special agents of the FBI’s Newark Field Office with the investigation leading to the plea and sentence, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Blake Coppotelli of his Economic Crimes Unit.
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