A Tampa man has been sentenced to over three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges of money laundering and operating a money transmitting business without a license. Pratikbhai Patel, 32, was handed down a 41-month sentence by U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber and, as part of his sentence, Patel agreed to pay upwards of $650,000 in restitution and forfeiture obligations, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Patel's legal troubles stem from his involvement in multiple fraudulent operations from 2018 to 2023. In one instance, he acted as a "runner" for an overseas call center scam, in which victims were duped into thinking they faced imminent arrest or other dire legal consequences, unless they sent money to Patel's associates. This heinous scheme operated from July through October 2018, where Patel would receive and withdraw funds from victims quickly to avoid disputes, an operation Fiscal Agent Ron Loecker labelled as Patel's way to prey on vulnerable victims to satisfy his greed.
Moreover, using his businesses “Tampa Smoke Shop LLC” and “Mamba Distro LLC,” from September 2020 to February 2023, Patel engaged in a scheme involving 235 wire transfers to 115 unique entities which appeared to serve no legitimate business purpose. For these transfers, Patel charged a fee between 1% and 1.5%. His activities circumvented the legal requirement, to be registered, as a money service business with the State of Florida.
This case was not just the effort of one agency but was part of an investigation by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). The OCDETF uses a multiagency approach to dismantle high-level criminal organizations posing threats within the United States. Patel was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Suzanne Huyler and Dan Baeza with the indispensable collaboration of the IRS-Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, who worked closely to uncover and prosecute this complex financial criminal activity.
