Indian Citizen Sentenced for Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property

ALBANY, NEW YORK – Kirtankumar Dalwadi, age 27, and a citizen of India, was sentenced today to 15 months in prison for his role in a law enforcement impersonation scheme.

United States Attorney Carla B. Freedman and Matthew Scarpino, Special Agent in Charge of the Buffalo Field Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), made the announcement.

In previously pleading guilty, Dalwadi admitted that in June and July 2021, while temporarily residing in Albany, he was contacted by scammers he knew in India, who asked him to pick up quantities of U.S. currency from several locations in the eastern United States, and to transport and deliver the currency to various people in New Jersey.

At the request of Dalwadi’s associates, he picked up $250,000 in Niskayuna, New York, $60,000 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, and $30,000 in McKee, West Virginia, and delivered most of this money to people in New Jersey.  The victims in Niskayuna, Pennsylvania and West Virginia were victims of law enforcement impersonation scams, and were falsely led to believe that by making cash payments, they would extricate themselves from legal trouble threatened by the scammers.  In pleading guilty, Dalwadi admitted that he knew the victims were being defrauded. 

Dalwadi was initially arrested by Watervliet Police in July 2021, while attempting to pick up a Fedexed package of money sent by a would-be victim in New Mexico.

United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino also ordered Dalwadi to pay $340,000 in restitution, and to forfeit an additional $12,000.  Dalwadi, as a citizen of India lacking status in the United States, will also be placed into removal (deportation) proceedings.

HSI, along with the Niskayuna and Watervliet Police Departments, investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Barnett prosecuted the case.