Kartik Saini, 33, has been sentenced to six years and one month in federal prison for orchestrating a $1.2 million fraud scheme involving false claims of banking and technology account breaches, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois. The sentence was handed down on June 25 by U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey.

Between 2020 and 2021, Saini and accomplices impersonated employees from major companies such as Google, Apple, and Citibank. They contacted victims, falsely informing them that their accounts or computers had been compromised. The defendants then instructed the victims to transfer money through gift cards or cryptocurrency transactions, purportedly to secure their funds.

Authorities reported that the scheme defrauded four individuals of a combined total of $1.2 million. Among the victims was a Chicago woman who lost approximately $746,000, an amount prosecutors described as a significant portion of her retirement savings.

Saini was apprehended in August 2024 upon arrival in New York from India. He entered a guilty plea to wire fraud in March. The case highlights ongoing challenges in combating increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics exploiting victims’ trust in technology companies and financial institutions.