Payza co-founders Firoz and Ferhan Patel have pled guilty to money laundering fraud charges.
The pair were indicted back in March 2018, with the guilty plea bringing criminal proceedings against them to a close.
News of the Patel’s guilty pleas broke back in March, we’d been waiting for further news since then.
Formally, Firoz and Ferhan Patel have pled guilty to
conspiring to launder money and operating an Internet-based unlicensed money service business that processed more than $250 million in illicit transactions.
Firoz Patel also pled guilty to one count of conspiring to launder monetary instruments for charges related to a case out of the Middle District of Tennessee.
The pleas will see the Patel brothers surrender over $12.5 million in ill-gotten gains.
The Patel brother’s fraud took place through AlertPay, Payza and EgoPay.
The defendants each admitted that their scheme caused over $250,000,000 to be illegally transmitted and to failing to conduct proper due diligence of their customers.
The defendant lastly acknowledged that their actions were done willfully, knowingly, and with the specific intent to violate the law.
Sentencing has been scheduled for November 10th, 2020.
The DOJ has requested Payza clients file any enquiries via their website.
Update 12th November 2020 – On November 10th the Patel brothers were sentenced to 4+ years in prison.