U.S. District Judge Camela C. Theeler has sentenced an Indianapolis, Indiana, man convicted in a federal jury trial of Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud. The sentencing took place on January 26, 2026.
Abdul Waheed Mohammed, age 33, was sentenced to five years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund and $163,000 in restitution.
Mohammed was indicted for Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Wire Fraud by a federal grand jury in November 2024. Mohammed was found guilty on the Conspiracy charge after a three-day jury trial in October 2025.
In September 2023, Mohammed and several co-conspirators, including co-defendant Shalinee Vyas, were involved in a scam targeting elderly victims across the United States and fraudulently taking money from them. The victims were told and convinced by these scammers that they had committed a crime or had their bank accounts hacked. In September 2023, those working with Mohammed contacted an elderly victim in the Rapid City area and falsely claimed to be law enforcement officers. The victim was told she had been involved in a crime and would be arrested if she did not do exactly what she was told, which included paying over cash and gold to resolve the non-existent criminal matter. The scammers also told the victim she could not speak about the matter to anyone, or she would be arrested. Over the course of a week, the victim lost more than $100,000 to the scammers when they came to the victim’s home to pick up cash and gold.
After these events, the victim’s friends noticed a change in her behavior that ultimately led to uncovering the scam. The victim notified law enforcement of the communications and law enforcement learned that another $95,000 in gold was to be picked up by a scammer. Law enforcement then conducted an operation and arrested Mohammed when he arrived at the victim’s home to pick up the gold. Following Mohammed’s arrest, law enforcement located numerous messages in Mohammed’s phone from Vyas to Mohammed and others directing Mohammed to various locations throughout the United States to collect cash from elderly victims who were being scammed, including the pick-up of gold in Rapid City.
“This defendant and his ring of thieves systematically preyed upon the elderly and vulnerable to rob them of their life savings and hard-earned retirement funds,” said U.S. Attorney Parsons. “It really takes a special kind of rotten to make a living scaring, threatening, stealing from, and impoverishing
our senior citizens in what are supposed to be their golden years. I’m so proud of these law enforcement officers for catching these criminals and holding them accountable.”
This case was investigated by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office. Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Patterson prosecuted the case.
Mohammed was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
If you or someone you know is asked to do any of these things mentioned in the above case, you are dealing with a fraudster, and you should do the following immediately:
- Do not send any more money
- Save copies of your communications, receipts, bank records, etc.
- Call your local police department, sheriff’s office, or the FBI
- Submit a complaint online at IC3.gov
In addition, an individual employed by the federal government will never:
- Tell you to withdraw any of your money from your bank accounts.
- Ask you to convert your money into gold bars or some other form of currency.
- Come to your house or meet you at a predetermined location and take money from you.
- Ask you to wire money to an account.
- Ask you to send money via CashApp, Zelle, Apple Pay, or any other peer-to-peer platform.
- Ask you to send cryptocurrency.
- Ask you to buy gift cards and send them (either by mailing the physical cards or by scratching them off and sending pictures of the redemption information).
- Tell you they need remote access to your computer or any of your accounts.
- Ask you for your social security number, bank account information, or any other sensitive information over phone or email.
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