2 Cousins Plead Guilty In Massive Airbnb Fraud Operation

LOS ANGELES, CA — A pair of cousins pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges connected to multimillion-dollar scam ripping off unsuspecting travelers using Airbnb in California and across the country, according to prosectors.

Shray Goel, 37, of Calabasas, and Shaunik Raheja, 36, of Denver, were involved in the double-booking, bait-and-switch scheme, which prosecutors say included discrimination against Black people, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Goel pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of wire fraud in a so-called "package deal" with Raheja, his cousin and business partner, who entered a plea to a charge of obstruction of justice for lying to investigators.

The cousins' business spanned nearly 100 properties across the country as of 2019, including rentals in Los Angeles, Malibu and Marina Del Ray as well as other large markets such as Chicago, Denver, Milwaukee, Austin, Dallas, Cleveland and Nashville, plus sites in smaller cities like Davenport, Florida, and Bloomington, Indiana, court records show.

To carry out the scheme, properties were double-booked through multiple listings of the same home on Airbnb and Vrbo, and renters were then handed bogus last-minute excuses — often plumbing problems — resulting in the cancellation of overbooked guests or to trick them into moving to inferior replacement accommodations, the DOJ said.

Goel and his associates sometimes falsely listed addresses that had no residential structure, that were not affiliated with their business, or that simply did not exist, legal records said, adding they also used fake names or other people’s identities.

Members of the conspiracy profited by running a secret bidding war for the properties — meaning they posted multiple listings for the same property at different prices for the same night, allowed the highest bidder to rent a particular property, then canceled or switched the lower-paying guests to a different property in the area, according to prosecutors.

"Goel and Raheja made decisions about which guests to keep and which to cancel based in part on their racial prejudices and discrimination," the superseding indictment states.

The defendants, according to the DOJ, tried to avoid renting to guests they perceived to be Black and in this way deprived them of their reservations and otherwise caused these guests to suffer monetary losses when their reservations were canceled.

They refused refunds and posted misleading or false reviews, according to the documents, which said Goel would threaten and insult customer service representatives, sometimes resulting in representatives denying refunds to which guests were entitled.

The cousins' activity was first reported in 2019 by Vice’s Allie Conti, who detailed her experience of being scammed during a trip to Chicago. She was moved to a flophouse — supposedly after the toilet flooded at her original rental — and told to leave early, according to Conti, who said she was refunded only $399 of the $1,221.10 she spent.

Conti became suspicious and discovered that her host had called her from an untraceable Google number and used a stock photo for their profile picture, she reported. She kept digging, and a trail of evidence eventually led her to Goel, according to Vice.

The wire fraud charge carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in federal prison. The obstruction of justice count lodged against Raheja carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years.

Prosecutors said both Airbnb and Vrbo are cooperating with the government in the investigation.

Sentencing hearings were set for Goel on Aug. 14 and Sept. 11 for Raheja.

City News Service and Patch staffer Anna Schier contributed to this report.