Indian man who fled US arrested on charges he helped scammers siphon $7.5 million from the elderly

A Jersey City resident is facing charges for his alleged role as a money mule for overseas cyberscammers who stole millions from elderly New Yorkers. 

The Justice Department said Indian national Jay Sunilbharthi Goswami, 21, was tasked with picking up money and gold from people who had been convinced by scammers to hand over their savings through a variety of scams. 

Prosecutors said they caught the Gujarat native facilitating the transfer of more than $7.5 million from at least nine victims living in New York and New Jersey. Goswami was charged with wire fraud, money laundering and more. He is now facing 20 years in prison. 

He was initially detained in December 2025 and released, after which he allegedly continued working with the scammers before being arrested on August 17. He was released on pretrial detention the same day but fled the country on Tuesday, driving across the Peace Bridge connecting Buffalo to Canada.

Goswami booked a flight from Toronto to Doha but was arrested by Canadian authorities at his gate and is awaiting extradition back to the U.S.

In a criminal complaint, agents from the FBI and IRS outlined Goswami’s role as a money mule for scammers based in India. 

The scammers called or emailed victims pretending to be law enforcement or government officials, offering a variety of reasons for why victims needed to empty their bank accounts and hand over all of their funds. Some were told their names were linked to drug cases while others were told their information had been stolen and was being used to buy things. 

Victims were told to provide cash or buy gold bars and gift cards. Almost all of those listed as victims in the complaint are in their 70s and 80s. In total, the victims handed over $7,559,185. 

The scam operation would allegedly give Goswami addresses and code words, tasking him with getting the money or gold from victims and driving it to a different location, where it was sent to India. 

Goswami, who is legally in the U.S. on a student visa while attending Fairleigh Dickinson University, allegedly earned about $90,000 from the scheme.

When he was initially arrested on December 19 he told investigators that he met one of the scammers while attending a recent funeral in India and did not know he was involved in anything illegal. 

The complaint provides text messages, emails and other documents showing Goswami was fully aware of what the scammers were doing. Goswami gave the man he met at the funeral, known as “Black Tiger,” the number to a local lawyer in New Jersey after another money mule was arrested. 

Prosecutors said money mules are deployed to conceal and disguise the movement of funds, making it more difficult for law enforcement to trace the origin and final destination of stolen money. 

Both India and the U.S. have sought to target scam centers siphoning millions from people worldwide through tech support scams or other ruses designed to steal money from people. Indian authorities recently raided 76 locations across the country accused of running tech support scams after receiving tips from Amazon and Microsoft.

In May, two men pleaded guilty to helping a tech-support scheme in India that defrauded American citizens.