Who Are Tejas Patel And Navya Bhatt? Two Men Of Indian Origin Charged With Money Laundering Over Scamming Senior Citizens With Fake Microsoft Schemes

Two men of Indian origin, including a University of Toledo student, now face charges for their alleged roles in a money laundering scheme targeting elderly Americans.

According to US reports, federal agents arrested Tejas Patel and Navya Bhatt after linking them to a string of scams that drained thousands of dollars from seniors across Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.

Two Men of Indian Origin Charged Over Money Laundering

The accused didn’t stick to just one trick. They ran a mix of PayPal fraud, fake Microsoft tech support, and Bitcoin scams—often pretending to be tech workers, according to local news outlets WTOL11 and WTVG.

Navya Bhatt, one of the accused, is a marketing major at the University of Toledo. He’s also under an ICE detainer, which suggests he’s in the US illegally. Court records show Bhatt is an Indian national living in Toledo on an F1 student visa.

Both Patel and Bhatt showed up in federal court on January 30 and decided to skip their preliminary hearings. Patel has to return for a detention hearing on February 6, but there’s no new court date for Bhatt yet.

How Seniors Were Allegedly Scammed Across the US States

They’re both facing three counts of money laundering.

Court documents lay out how the pair allegedly targeted elderly victims, sometimes demanding cash, sometimes insisting on gold bars or Bitcoin.

In one case, a Toledo senior lost $40,000 after the scammers pretended to be Federal Trade Commission officials. Investigators say Patel and Bhatt pressured seniors and convinced them to hand over large sums, using fear and fake authority.

When authorities dug into Patel’s Apple account, they found videos and photos of piles of cash and gold, messages with other co-conspirators, including Bhatt, plus victims’ addresses and notes about their “earnings.”

The account also showed Patel instructed Bhatt via WhatsApp to pick up cash and gold from elderly victims at least four times.

The case is still unfolding, but the evidence paints a clear picture of a calculated operation that preyed on some of the most vulnerable people in these communities.

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