Indian-American jeweler accused of international trade fraud worth millions of dollars
Prosecutors alleged that the man shipped millions of dollars worth of jewelry from South Korea to the United States.
Washington:
An Indian jeweler has been charged with illegally evading customs duty and running an unlicensed money remittance business for importing millions of dollars worth of jewelery into the US, a US lawyer has said.
Monishkumar Kirankumar Doshi Shah (39) – who lives in both Mumbai and New Jersey – was arrested over the weekend and appeared before US Magistrate Judge Andre M Espinosa in Newark federal court on February 26.
Shah, alias “Monish Doshi Shah”, was released on a US$100,000 bond with house arrest and location monitoring.
A complaint charges him with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of operating, aiding and abetting an unlicensed money remittance business.
According to the documents, from January 2015 to September 2023, Shah engaged in a scheme to avoid duty on shipments of jewelery from Turkey and India to the US.
These stated that he would order or direct his conspirators to send goods from Turkey or India, which would receive a duty of about 5.5 percent, if shipped directly to the United States, to one of the Shah’s companies in South Korea.
Federal prosecutors alleged that Shah’s conspirators in South Korea changed the labels on jewelry to make it appear as if it was from South Korea rather than Turkey or India, and then shipped it to Shah or his customers in the United States, thereby illegally selling it. Fees were avoided.
He also instructed his clients to create fake invoices and packing lists to make it appear as if Shah’s South Korean companies were actually ordering jewelery from Turkey or India.
Prosecutors alleged that during the scheme, Shah shipped millions of dollars worth of jewelry from South Korea to the United States.
From July 2020 to November 2021, Shah operated several alleged jewelry companies in New York City’s Diamond District, including MKore LLC (MKore), MKore USA Inc. (MKore USA) and Vruman Corp (Vruman).
Documents say he used these entities to conduct millions of dollars of illegal financial transactions for customers, including converting cash into checks or wire transfers.
Shah also collected cash from customers and used the conspirators’ jewelry companies located in the Diamond District to convert the cash into wires or checks.
At times, Shah and his conspirators moved more than a million dollars in cash in a single day, the documents said. In return for their services, the Shah and his conspirators charged fees.
Prosecutors said none of Shah’s or his conspirators’ companies were registered as money transfer businesses with New York, New Jersey or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)