IRS Phone Scam Ends In Jail For Miami Man

MIAMI, FL — An IRS phone scam ended in a jail sentence for a Miami man. Anandkumar Jayantila Nayee. was sentenced to 40 months in prison for his role in bilking victims over a three-year period. Federal prosecutors said that he and his co-conspirators called victims posing as IRS representatives and convinced the victims they owed back taxes or other fees.

"According to court documents, from January 2014 through early 2017, defendant Nayee conspired with others to defraud victims," federal prosecutors said. "Nayee’s co-conspirators contacted victims by telephone and made fraudulent representations to them, including that the victims owed income tax payments to the IRS, or owed fees for grants or loans that they had purportedly received." (Sign up for our free Daily Newsletters and Breaking News Alerts for the Miami Patch.)

In addition to the jail time, Nayee was also sentenced to three years of supervised release. The sentence was announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg on Tuesday. Nayee was held responsible for at least $150,000 in victim losses during the telephone fraud scheme.

Like Miami Patch on Facebook

Nayee pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft.

"Nayee’s co-conspirators instructed the victims to deposit payments related to the taxes or fees that they purportedly owed onto debit cards and into bank accounts controlled by Nayee and his co-conspirators," according to federal prosecutors. "Nayee and his co-conspirators then received and retained the victims’ payments."

Prosecutors said that the money was passed through Green Dot prepaid debit cards. "Nayee then caused the prepaid debit cards to be registered in the names of real people, and notified his co-conspirator once the cards had been funded by victims of the telephone fraud scheme," according to prosecutors. "The co-conspirator then used the prepaid debit cards to purchase money orders, and deposited the money orders into bank accounts specified by Nayee."

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Daya Nathan.

Photo of the Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. U.S. Courthouse courtesy of the U.S. government