Media365
Bhavesh Kumar Thakkar, a 45-year-old Indian man, has been convicted of two counts related to wire fraud and money laundering in Texas. According to court documents, Thakkar was part of an elaborate fraud scheme that went on from September 2022 to 2025 — with Rakesh Barot, Dhruv Rajeshbhai Mangukiya and Kishan Rajeshkumar Patel. All of them were part of the senior scam across the country, where senior citizens are told to get gold using all their savings. They are then convinced to hand over the gold to their courier partners claiming that they are federal officers who will protest their gold.In his role, Thakkar, who is on a spouse visa, served as a US-based coordinator for the receipt and laundering of fraud proceeds in the form of cash and gold obtained from elderly victims across the country. The fraud proceeds were obtained by call center scammers based in India. He also personally received some of those funds from couriers such as Mangukiya and Patel. The funds were shipped to Los Angeles and New York before being laundered overseas. Thakkar was directly connected to over $150 million in fraud proceeds scammed from elderly victims across the United States.“Foreign actors, both abroad and here in the United States, cannot be allowed to target Americans, especially our most vulnerable citizens,” said US Attorney Simmons. “Many victims lose a significant portion of their life savings to these scammers, leaving victims vulnerable and hopeless. When we find them, we will do all we can to take from them the same sense of freedom and comfort they stole from their victims.”“Protecting our elderly citizens from those who would defraud them out of their hard-earned money is a high priority for the FBI,” said FBI San Antonio Division Special Agent in Charge Daniel Faith. “This defendant was found guilty of working with others to scam a large number of vulnerable senior citizens out of millions of dollars. We’re grateful to all of our partners in this case, including numerous FBI Field Offices, Indian authorities via our Legat New Delhi and the Granite Shoals Police Department.”In 2025, Mangukiya and Patel were sentenced to 97 months and 63 months in federal prison, respectively. Barot pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering and is awaiting sentencing.
