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Venkateswara Chagamreddy, an Indian man living in Texas on a student visa.
An Indian citizen living in the US on a student visa has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for his role in a scheme that defrauded an elderly Vietnam veteran, the US Attorney’s Office said.Venkateswara Chagamreddy, 37, of San Antonio, Texas, was also ordered to pay USD 99,496 in restitution and will serve three years of supervised release after his prison term. He is expected to face removal proceedings from the US after completing his sentence.A federal jury convicted Chagamreddy in April 2026 of conspiring to defraud the elderly veteran. He will remain in custody pending his transfer to the US Bureau of Prisons.
How did the fraud scheme work?
The case began in August 2025 when the elderly victim called a phone number he believed was Microsoft support. The person answering falsely told him that criminal activity had been detected on his computer and that the matter would be reported to the federal government.The victim was then contacted by a person posing as a federal officer, who claimed that his identity had been stolen and used to commit federal crimes.
He was later transferred to someone posing as a Treasury Department official.The fake official told the victim to convert his money into gold and said an officer would come to collect it. The victim followed the instructions, sent photographs of the gold and handed over the package to the person who arrived to collect it.Days later, the fake officer demanded more money. The victim then contacted a family member, who realised he was being scammed and alerted the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office.
How was Chagamreddy caught?
With the victim’s cooperation, deputies arranged another gold pickup. Chagamreddy arrived at the victim’s home at the scheduled time and was arrested.Authorities found $500 in cash, a cellphone and 23 ounces of gold in his vehicle, the US Attorney’s Office said.Evidence presented at trial showed that Chagamreddy had been communicating with another person involved in the fraud scheme and had travelled across several states to collect gold from elderly victims.According to evidence presented to the jury, Chagamreddy flew from Austin to North Carolina, where he picked up gold from an 87-year-old woman. He later travelled to Kansas, where he collected another 23 ounces of gold from a 75-year-old woman.He then drove to Delaware County, Oklahoma, where the 79-year-old Vietnam veteran lived alone on a rural road. Messages recovered from Chagamreddy’s phone showed that the alleged co-conspirator had sent him a photograph of the victim, who was wearing a Vietnam veteran shirt.The US Attorney’s Office said the evidence showed Chagamreddy worked with another person to target multiple victims within a 48-hour period.US Attorney Christopher J Nassar said elder-fraud schemes use fear and deception to target vulnerable people. He said Chagamreddy, an Indian national in the US on a student visa, used fear to deceive and extort a Vietnam veteran.The case was investigated by the Delaware County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations and the Oklahoma Attorney General’s Office.
Assistant US Attorneys Charles Greenough and Augustus Forster prosecuted the case.
US crackdown on elder fraud
The US Department of Justice reported to Congress in 2025 that authorities had taken more than 280 enforcement actions against over 600 defendants in elder-fraud cases. The defendants collectively attempted to steal, or stole, more than $2.3 billion from over one million Americans.Investment fraud accounted for more than $1.8 billion in reported losses, while fraudulent tech-support schemes accounted for $982 million, according to the DOJ.
