Tushal Rathod, a 44-year-old man from Van Buren, NY, has been charged by the FBI with laundering counterfeit checks amounting to $1.7 million. His former partner, a mother of his six-year-old child, reported to the FBI that she saw suspicious screenshots on his device, which included evidence of crypto transactions and conversations in other languages.
According to a court filing by FBI special agent Samuel Morgan, Rathod allegedly received $1.2 million worth of BTC through a network of seven bank accounts at six different financial institutions. His former partner noticed the scheme after Rathod repeatedly complained about his bank accounts being closed.
Man charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud
Tushal Rahod has been charged with multiple counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, by the FBI. The alleged crimes took place between November 2021 and June 2024. In his court filing, Samuel Morgan revealed that as part of the investigations, the FBI had obtained records from Google for [email protected], Apple iCloud accounts belonging to the same email, and [email protected], all via court order.Â
FBI special agent Morgan alleged that Rathod incorporated two companies he used in the scheme. In 2016, Rathod registered T3 Telecom, LLC, a telecommunications company that tested and deployed network devices. He also incorporated TSV Telecom Constructions LLC in 2021.
Morgan added that between April 2022 and June 2024, the accused received over $1.7 million in suspected fraudulent proceeds from business email compromise (BEC) fraud and counterfeit checks. The accused received the funds through six different financial institutions, with five accounts belonging to T3 Telecommunications and one for TSV Telecommunications.Â
BEC fraud originates from compromised employee login credentials through spear phishing. Scammers intercept information about the company’s upcoming payments and deceive vendors into completing payments through fake domains.
Rathod used at least $1.2 million of the proceeds to purchase Bitcoin and sent them to different external addresses. Three financial institutions contacted him in 2022, including Wells Fargo, notifying him that the money received into his account was unauthorized and would proceed to close the account.
Later that year, M&T Bank also contacted Rathod and informed him of the fraudulent funds, but he replied with a fake invoice to justify the funds as legitimate income. The accused stopped contacting M&T Bank after learning police records had been filed.Â
Rathod faces a 20-year jail term if convicted
Tushal Rathod, the accused, allegedly recruited other people to aid his plan, including his former girlfriend, the owner of the iCloud account associated with [email protected], to create businesses and open business bank accounts.
According to the court filing by Samuel Morgan, Rathod recruited his family members too between May and July 2024 to assist in the scheme, which resulted in an additional $1 million deposited into accounts controlled by his girlfriend and family members. Citibank has been able to recover $800,000 worth of fraudulent funds.Â
Morgan explained that in his training and experience, he could identify fraudsters who conduct BEC scams, often working with an extensive network of launderers to help them. He added that the scammers work with others to use multiple bank accounts to move money in a series of convoluted transactions that make it hard to identify the source or who controls the funds, referring to the plot as layering or funneling.Â
Rhode Island real estate law firm was the first victim of the BEC scam reported in 2022, having lost approximately $163,298. The victim received an email that impersonated an employee at Northpointe Bank, directing the victim to send funds to an account supposedly belonging to a Mortgage Company, Carrington Mortgage, associated with a valid real estate transaction. California Credit Union was also involved in the scheme as the second victim, losing approximately $8 million to bank accounts controlled by other scammers.
