Judge Orders Prison For Bay Area Men In $2.5M DoorDash Delivery Conspiracy

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — A cross-state conspiracy that siphoned more than $2.5 million from DoorDash through phantom food deliveries ended this week with prison sentences.

U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman handed down the final sentence Tuesday, closing out the case against five men from California and Texas, who admitted working together to defraud the San Francisco-based delivery company.

They scammed DoorDash out of millions by placing expensive phantom orders through customer accounts and then using employee credentials to access the company's software, authorities said.
Prosecutors said the men created fraudulent customer and driver accounts on DoorDash’s platform and used fake customer profiles to place delivery orders.

Using insider access to DoorDash’s computer systems, they assigned those orders to bogus driver accounts. They manipulated the system to trigger payments as if the deliveries had been completed — in some cases hundreds of times.

The scheme resulted in more than $2.5 million in fraudulent payments, federal authorities said in a news release. All five pleaded guilty.

A grand jury originally indicted four of the men in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, with Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri facing a conspiracy to commit wire fraud charge, which he pleaded guilty to.

Devagiri, 31, of Newport Beach, was sentenced to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release, ordered to pay $2,590,195 in restitution, and forfeit $356,732.

Tyler Thomas Bottenhorn, 30, of Dixon, was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $2,127,216 in restitution and forfeit $244,247.

Matheus Duarte, 30, of Hayward, was sentenced to 25 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,590,195 in restitution as well as forfeit $336,712. He is scheduled to begin serving his sentence on March 4.

Manaswi Mandadapu, 31, of Irvine, received 12 months in prison and three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $2,590,195 in restitution. He is set to begin serving his sentence on March 26.

Hari Vamsi Anne, 31, of Cypress, Texas, received 22 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay $2,590,195 in restitution. He is set to report on March 4.

U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian and FBI Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani announced the sentences. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael G. Pitman prosecuted the case with assistance from Sahib Kaur following an FBI investigation.

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