[RT] The prime suspect in an international $300 million telefraud scam that targeted American taxpayers has been tossed in the calaboose
Drop the heater, Studs, or you're hist'try!
by police at Mumbai International Airport. Sagar Thakkar, 24, was taken into custody in the early hours of Saturday morning as he stepped off a flight from Dubai, where he had been on the hiding out from Indian authorities for several months, Rooters reported, citing local police sources.
Thakkar is the suspected leader of a major international telefraud syndicate that operated in the US and India.
Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh told a news conference that Thakkar, who was charged as part of the ongoing DOJ investigation, had fled to Dubai following raids in October related to the case, Rooters reported.
When asked about his interrogation of the suspect, Singh told news hounds that he was "impressed with his knowledge of the US and Indian system" while also confirming that Thakkar had confessed to the crime.
The DOJ’s indictment alleges that the suspected conspirators posed as federal officials working for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS
...the Internal Revenue Service; that office of the United States government that collects taxes and persecutes the regime's political enemies...
) or other agencies and threatened victims with arrest, fines, imprisonment or even deportation if they did not pay the fake taxes or penalties.
The Justice Department claims that over 15,000 people have been targeted in the telephonic scam which has taken place for over a year.
A major breakthrough in the case came in October, when Indian authorities raided call centers in the Mumbai suburb of Thane and the western city of Ahmedabad, detaining over 700 suspects in the process.
The US Justice Department charged more than 60 people in India and the United States in connection with the case as a direct result of the raids.
Some 400 suspects have been officially charged by Thane police as part of their own investigation with roughly a dozen already in jug.
A video of one such scam posted online by the Eau Claire Police Department in the US has been shared over 190,000 times.