4 charged with defrauding San Francisco delivery company out of $2.5 million
Four people have been charged in an alleged multi-million dollar fraud scheme targeting a San Francisco delivery company, federal officials said.
All four suspects were arrested on Friday in the Bay Area, Southern California and Texas following a federal grand jury indictment filed August 7 and unsealed Friday, according to a press statement from Ismail Ramsey, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California.
Matheus Duarte, 29, was arrested in Mountain House, San Joaquin County, and was released on bond after making his initial appearance in San Jose. Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri, 30, and Manaswi Mandadapu, 29, were arrested in Newport Beach, Orange County, and made their initial appearances in Santa Ana where they were also released on bond. Hari Vamsi Anne, 30, was arrested in Cypress, Texas. He was detained pending further proceedings after his initial court appearance in Houston.
All four were charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to the indictment, the four defendants worked together to cause the victim company to pay for deliveries that never happened between November 2020 and February 2021.
The company, which prosecutors did not identify, provides delivery services to customers on orders placed using the company's platform. Drivers collect the ordered items from restaurants and other merchants and deliver them to customers.
The complaint says that the defendants created fake customer and driver accounts the delivery company's platform and used the fake accounts to order items for delivery. The complaint also says defendants used insider access to the company's computer systems to assign the orders to the fake driver accounts, and manipulated the computer systems to cause company to pay the fraudulent driver accounts as if the orders had been delivered hundreds of times.
According to the indictment, the scheme allegedly resulted in fraudulent payments exceeding $2.5 million.
It was also alleged that the defendants gained access to the business' computer systems with credentials of a former employee, identified as Solano County resident Tyler Thomas Bottenhorn. The press statement said Bottenhorn was not charged in the indictment unsealed on October 4, but was charged separately with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in a case filed in 2022 and unsealed on Monday. Bottenhorn pleaded guilty in November 2023 to being involved in the scheme to defraud the delivery company.
If convicted, Duarte, Devagiri, Mandadapu and Anne each face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for the wire fraud charge, although any sentence would take into account federal sentencing guidelines.