Payza co-founders plead guilty to money laundering
Payza co-founders Firoz and Ferhan Patel have pled guilty to money laundering fraud charges.
The pair were indicted back in March 2018, with the guilty plea bringing criminal proceedings against them to a close.
News of the Patel’s guilty pleas broke back in March, we’d been waiting for further news since then.
Formally, Firoz and Ferhan Patel have pled guilty to
conspiring to launder money and operating an Internet-based unlicensed money service business that processed more than $250 million in illicit transactions.
Firoz Patel also pled guilty to one count of conspiring to launder monetary instruments for charges related to a case out of the Middle District of Tennessee.
The pleas will see the Patel brothers surrender over $12.5 million in ill-gotten gains.
The Patel brother’s fraud took place through AlertPay, Payza and EgoPay.
The defendants each admitted that their scheme caused over $250,000,000 to be illegally transmitted and to failing to conduct proper due diligence of their customers.
The defendant lastly acknowledged that their actions were done willfully, knowingly, and with the specific intent to violate the law.
Sentencing has been scheduled for November 10th, 2020.
The DOJ has requested Payza clients file any enquiries via their website.
Update 12th November 2020 – On November 10th the Patel brothers were sentenced to 4+ years in prison.
Missed this because the filing showed up on the docket after I’d checked it.
Plea stuff was filed July 16th, my last date range search was from the 17th.
Shoutout to the reader who let me know or I might have missed it altogether.
hi oz, tq for the update…
so any update on the process of refunding? >.<
Read the article.
But dropped an email a few times already on their website, it always replied back with an automated reply…
I can’t speak for the DOJ, you have to take it up with them.
Hello, thanks for the update. The DOJ asked the clients to send them an email but they always reply with an automated reply.
Anyone know how to contact them directly to file an enquiry about funds seized…?
Yepp @alex…
much appreciated if anyone could help in this matter…as i believed a lot of us are in the same boat…
There is an update (on September 1, 2020) at the website of DOJ about Payza.
justice.gov/usao-dc/victim-witness-assistance/obopay-payza
But I don’t understand what they say? Any explanation please?
They want victims to fill in the petition form and email it back to them. I’ll have an article out in a bit.
Hello OZ,
Buddy, I really appreciate the close eye you have kept on this case since the beginning and have been keeping us informed about the progress.
Now when it is quite near to a stage where innocent people like us can claim their money back.
I have $7000 stuck over there, My hard-earned money. That’s My 4 month’s income.
The real problem here is that we are sitting miles away from the actual place where the crime has happened and it is practically impossible to go there physically and claim for refund.
I guess that applies to many of us… People sitting all across the world have lost their money.
I would appreciate if you can become our guiding star to claim the money.
The DOJ has requested Payza clients contact them. They’re the runs running the case.