Indian-American jailed for illegally bringing hundreds of Indian nationals in US via Uber

A 49-year-old Indian-American man was sentenced to more than three years in prison for illegally bringing hundreds of Indian nationals across the border from Canada and then to locations in the midwest and beyond, using ride-hailing major Uber. Rajinder Pal Singh, aka Jaspal Gill of Elk Grove in California, was sentenced on Tuesday at the District Court in Seattle for Conspiracy to Transport and Harbor Certain Aliens for Profit and Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering.

Over a four-year period, Mr Singh arranged for more than 800 people to be smuggled into the US across the northern border and into Washington State," said Acting US Attorney Tessa M Gorman. She said that Singh's participation in the conspiracy saddled those smuggled with crushing debt of as much as $70,000. Singh pleaded guilty in February, admitting that he took in more than $500,000 as a key member of a smuggling ring that used Uber to transport people illegally.

From mid-2018 to May 2022, Singh arranged more than 600 trips involving the transportation of Indian nationals who had been illegally smuggled into the US. Once the non-citizens had been smuggled into the US, Singh coordinated with other co-conspirators who, using one-way vehicle rentals, would transport these individuals to their ultimate destinations outside Washington state.

Singh and his co-conspirators used sophisticated means to launder the organisation's illicit proceeds. For example, on one instance, Singh and his co-conspirators arranged for smuggling fees to be sent via hawala from India to New York. Once the smuggling fee was received in cash from the New York hawala, these funds were converted into a check, mailed to a co-conspirator in Kentucky, and then were washed through multiple financial accounts.The Attorney's Office said in a statement that, in the plea agreement, Singh admitted that the purpose of this money movement was to obscure the illicit nature of these funds, i.e., money laundering.