The United States Department of Justice on Friday announced that a court in Texas had sentenced 21 members of an India-based fake call centre and money laundering scam to varying terms of imprisonment. Three others were sentenced earlier this year.

“The stiff sentences imposed this week represent the culmination of the first-ever large scale, multi-jurisdiction prosecution targeting the India call center scam industry,” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions. “This case represents one of the most significant victories to date in our continuing efforts to combat elder fraud and the victimization of the most vulnerable members of the United States public.

The Justice Department said the accused had set up call centres in India to phone people pretending to be from the US tax or immigration department and forced them to pay “fines” or face arrest and deportation. The department had charged 56 individuals and five Indian companies with conspiracy to commit identity theft, false personation of an officer of the United States, wire fraud and money laundering.

On October 4, 2016, more than 500 call centre staffers across Maharashtra’s Thane district were detained by Indian police for allegedly defrauding US citizens who were loan defaulters. Officials said the racket made more than Rs 1 crore every day. On October 15, 2016, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation started collaborating with Indian law enforcers in connection with the investigation.

Miteshkumar Patel, 42, of Illinois, was sentenced to serve 20 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release on the charge of money laundering conspiracy. According to his plea agreement, “Patel served as the manager of a Chicago-based crew of ‘runners’ that liquidated and laundered fraud proceeds generated by callers at India-based call centers,” the US Department of Justice said.

“Those callers used call scripts and lead lists to target victims throughout the United States with tele-fraud schemes in which the callers impersonated US government employees from the Internal Revenue Service and US Citizenship and Immigration Services,” the statement added.

Hardik Patel, also of Illinois, confessed to owning and managing the day-to-day operations of the India-based scam before leaving for the US. He has been sentenced to over 15 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. “Hardik consented to removal to India upon completion of his prison term,” the statement said.

The other convicts sentenced this week are: Sunny Joshi, Fahad Ali, Montu Barot, Rajesh Bhatt, Ashvinbhai Chaudhari, Jagdishkumar Chaudhari, Rajesh Kumar, Jerry Norris, Nisarg Patel, Nilesh Pandya, Nilam Parikh, Bharatkumar Patel, Bhavesh Patel, Dilip R Patel, Viraj Patel, Harsh Patel, Praful Patel, Dilip A Patel and Rajubhai Patel.