Waxhaw, N.C. Man Charged With Orchestrating $800,000 Investment Scheme Appears In Federal Court

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Kamlesh Gopal Pardasani, 49, of Waxhaw, N.C., appeared in court this morning in Charlotte, on federal charges related to an $800,000 investment scheme he allegedly orchestrated, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.  The federal indictment was filed on June 19, 2018, in the Western District of North Carolina, and was unsealed on November 30, 2019, after Pardasani was arrested at the Philadelphia International Airport upon entering the United States from India.

John A. Strong, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Charlotte Division, joins U.S. Attorney Murray in making today’s announcement.

According to allegations contained in the indictment, from August 2016 to June 2017, Pardasani executed a scheme to defraud at least five victims of more than $800,000, by inducing the victims to invest in his company, FreightGuru.com LLC (FreightGuru).  As alleged in the indictment, to induce his victims to invest their money, Pardasani falsely represented that he would use the investors’ money to fund a specific shipment of goods, and that, once the shipment cleared, the victims’ return rate on their initial investment would be between 15% and 20%.  Pardasani also lied to victims by falsely assuring them that their funds were secure and safe, when in fact he used the victims’ money to fund his lifestyle, pay off personal creditors, and to engage in high-risk securities trading in his personal trading account.  The indictment also alleges that after failing to invest the victims’ funds as promised, Pardasani continued to make additional false and fraudulent representations to lull victims and provide excuses for failing to return the victims’ money. 

Pardasani is charged with wire fraud, which carries a maximum prison term of 20 years and a $250,000 fine, and money laundering, which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years and a fine of not more than twice the amount of criminally derived property in the transaction or $250,000.

The details contained in the indictment are allegations.  The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

The FBI’s Charlotte Field Office led the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Finley of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte is prosecuting the case.