By: Richard L. Smith
A businessman with ties to India and New Jersey has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for orchestrating a scheme to evade customs duties on $13.5 million worth of jewelry imports and for illegally processing over $10.3 million through an unlicensed money transmitting operation, according to information released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Monishkumar Kirankumar Doshi Shah, also known as Monish Doshi Shah, 40, of Mumbai, India, and Jersey City, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. U.S. District Judge Esther Salas handed down the sentence in Newark federal court and ordered Shah to immediately begin serving his prison term.
Between December 2019 and April 2022, Shah evaded U.S. customs duties by rerouting jewelry shipments from Turkey and India to South Korea before they were sent to the United States. By altering shipping labels to falsely claim the jewelry originated in South Korea, Shah and his co-conspirators avoided paying a 5.5% duty. He also falsified invoices and packing lists and instructed a third-party shipping company to provide false information to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
In a separate scheme between July 2020 and November 2021, Shah operated several jewelry businesses in New York City's Diamond District, including MKore LLC, MKore USA Inc., and Vruman Corp. Through these companies, Shah conducted illegal financial transactions for clients, such as converting cash into checks or wire transfers. He also moved large sums of money—sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single day—through unregistered money transmitting businesses.
In addition to his prison sentence, Shah was ordered to pay $742,500 in restitution for the wire fraud scheme and to forfeit over $11.1 million related to the customs fraud and unlicensed money transmitting activities. He will also serve two years of supervised release after completing his prison term.
This case highlights the Justice Department's ongoing commitment to combating financial and customs fraud schemes that undermine regulatory systems and facilitate illegal activity.