USA: Telugu Student Jailed For 30 Months Over Gold Scam

A Telugu origin individual named Venkateswara Chagamreddy, who was living in Texas on a student visa, has been sentenced to 30 months in US federal prison for scamming an elder. The court also told him to pay $99,496 to the victim and he will face three years of supervised release.

The whole scam dates back in August 2025 when a 79 year old Vietnam veteran called a fake Microsoft support phone number. The scammers lied to the old man and said his computer was linked to illegal work. Then another person of the group calls him pretending to be a federal officer and convinced him to buy gold bars to protect his money.

The accused worked as a courier for this big fraud gang and drove across different states to collect cash and gold from old people. He committed many such similar frauds with the gang.

When the scammers asked the Vietnam veteran for even more money the victim told his family member who quickly realized it was a fraud. Police arrested Chagamreddy as soon as he arrived at the old man house in Oklahoma.

Now Venkateswara Chagamreddy is staying in custody while waiting to get transferred to the US Bureau of Prisons. After his jail term ends he will likely be deported back to India by US immigration authorities.

Despite zero tolerance for crimes in USA, several NRIs still continue to involve in illegal activities and pay the price.