AN INDIAN-ORIGIN man has pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit fraud.
Baljit Singh, 47, of California used a call centre in India to defraud hundreds of individuals across the US.
He will be sentenced on April 8 and faces 20 years in prison.
Singh could also be slapped with a $500,000 (£318,046) fine, US Attorney Benjamin Wagner said.
According to Singh’s plea agreement, between 2010 and 2011, Singh and co-defendant Sharanjit Kaur, 36, owned and operated several companies based in California for the purpose of defrauding hundreds of customers located throughout the US.
The two made false claims that the companies offered debt consolidation services such as low-interest loans for customers, assistance in avoiding lawsuits, lowering car payments and replacing high-interest credit cards with low-interest ones.
The two used a call center in India from which individuals would call customers under fake names.
After luring customers into using these services, Singh and his agents instructed customers to send in monthly payments of over $500 (£319).
In order to mislead customers, forged letters from creditors were sent indicating that loan modifications had been approved. When customers would contact the debt repair companies about late-payment or default notices they had received from their creditors, the defendants and their agents would hang up on customers.
The funds received from customers were used for the defendants’ own benefit or wired to an individual located in Kolkata, India.
Singh and Kaur agreed to forfeit over $26,000 (£16,594) from bank accounts and a residence owned by Kaur.
The US Attorney’s Office has also initiated separate civil actions to recover funds wired by the defendants to India.
Kaur had pleaded guilty to the charges last month and is scheduled to be sentenced on the same day as Singh.
