Man who operated "provisional credit" fraud scheme from Connecticut casino hotels sentenced to 28 months in federal prison

Wednesday 4th December 2019

Kishore Babu Ammisetti, 31, a citizen of India, was sentenced Wednesday to 28 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for operating a "provisional credit" scheme, according to a press release from John Durham, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

Ammisetti stole at least $860,000 from approximately 500 victims, the release stated. He often operated this scheme while staying at casino hotels in Connecticut.

Ammisetti has been detained since his arrest on January 25, 2019. On April 17, 2019, he pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud.

According the release, Ammisetti used Facebook Marketplace and other media to victimize individuals, primarily of Indian decent, who advertised items for sale or rooms for rent.

Then, Ammisetti would make contact to express interest in purchasing an item or renting a room. He would then gather the victim's bank account information and other personal information under the guise of making a deposit to the victim's bank account. He also would offer to provide a "deposit" directly into the victim's account via a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) transfer.

Ammisetti would then contact the victim's bank posing as the victim. He would claim to have made an ATM deposit that did not register on the victim's bank account. While researching the "unregistered deposit," the bank would credit the victim's account with a provisional credit. Ammisetti would then contact the victim and claim that the provisional credit to the victim's bank account was a mistaken transfer by Ammisetti to the victim's account.

Ammisetti would then request either a full or partial refund of that money, which the victim would provide via a P2P transfer. After the bank determined that there was no unregistered deposit to the victim's account, the funds provided as a provisional credit would be removed from the account.