Khalid Ahamad, 55, of Little Elm, Texas, was sentenced on May 28 by United States District Court Chief Judge Holly A. Brady after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to an announcement from United States Attorney Adam L. Mildred.
Ahamad received a sentence of 70 months in prison followed by two years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay $2,617,107.82 in restitution to victims of the offense, including a company based in Fort Wayne. The sentencing judgment also included forfeiture of proceeds derived from the offense and a money judgment against Ahamad for the same amount.
Court documents show that Ahamad knowingly conspired with others between 2020 and April 2023 to defraud victims across the United States and laundered millions through his bank accounts. The schemes included business email compromise operations, unemployment benefits fraud from state agencies, and Small Business Administration loan fraud. Victims were deceived into wiring money into accounts controlled by Ahamad or his associates; he then laundered these funds through his accounts before sending them via cryptocurrency to other conspirators. In total, the conspiracy attempted to steal over $6 million and succeeded in obtaining more than $2.6 million.
The business email compromise scheme involved conspirators gaining access to company emails and using inside information about invoices and payments to send fraudulent messages altering payment instructions so that funds would be sent under their control instead of legitimate vendors or clients.
“The Defendant was extremely sophisticated. Thanks to the professional investigation put together by the FBI with the assistance of the Stamford Police Department in Connecticut, the Defendant was caught, prosecuted, and sentenced,” Mildred said.
“This 70-month prison sentence is another example of the FBI and our law enforcement partners working tirelessly to protect victims from fraudsters and scammers,” said Timothy J. O’Malley, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Office.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation led this case with help from The Colony Police Department in Texas. Assistant United States Attorneys Justin Sheridan and Anthony Geller prosecuted it.
