Four men of Indian descent have been charged in a USD3.5 million-fraud in which they pretended to be tax officials and collected money by allegedly threatening over 7,300 people, a federal prosecutor has announced. Gregory J. Haanstad, the Wisconsin Eastern District prosecutor, on Thursday said the scheme was "likely originating from India". Moin Gohil, 22, was picked up by law enforcement authorities in Georgia on November 24, and Pratik Patel, 26, Parvez Jiwani, 39, and Nakul Chetiwal, 27, were arrested on Tuesday by federal authorities, Haanstad said.

According to the prosecutor, their fraud is known as an "IRS impersonation scheme". Participants in the scheme based "likely in India" call victims in the US pretending to be officials of the federal tax agency, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and typically claim they owe taxes. They then threaten and intimidate the victims saying they would face arrest or legal action if they did not send money through services like MoneyGram and Western Union or provide gift cards with cash value. Members based in the US, who are known as "runners" use fake identification to pick up the money or the cards.