Indian American charged in multi-million dollar investment scam

If convicted, Babu Ramaraj faces up to 20 years in prison for alleged wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions

An Indian American man has been charged with wire fraud and unlawful monetary transactions in a multi-million dollar scam to defraud dozens of investors in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Missouri, and elsewhere.

A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia returned an indictment charging Babu Ramaraj, 46, on June 27, according to press release from US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Ramaraj and his wife owned DAB Inspection and Consulting Services, LLC (DAB), a small home contractor with modest revenues doing patio and deck projects, according to court documents.

He allegedly stated that DAB had lucrative contracts with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and others, and was a joint venture partner on a Washington DC Water Clean Rivers Project, for tens of millions of dollars each, supposedly to perform engineering inspection work on huge infrastructure projects.

As alleged in the indictment, Ramaraj claimed he needed to make large upfront bond payments to secure the work, but could not obtain bank financing because of the relative youth of DAB as a company and the speed with which DAB needed to secure the funding, which was supposedly not feasible with banks.

In support of his claims, Ramaraj allegedly supplied to victims with falsified contract award letters, invoices, DAB financial records, and other documents to induce dozens of investors to loan DAB more than $20 million in aggregate. In reality, according to the indictment, Ramaraj forged the contract documents and the supposed bonds were never paid.

From January 2020 through May 2024, Ramaraj allegedly pitched individuals, including members of his Loudon County cricket league, the opportunity to loan DAB money at high interest rates, annualized at over 100% in some instances. Using money from later investors, Ramaraj allegedly paid initial investors the promised returns to entice them to continue investing and to recruit other friends and family to invest.

Instead of paying for the promised bonds, according to the indictment Ramaraj electronically transferred investor funds to his and his spouse’s online brokerage accounts to engage in securities trades, wired over $1 million to accounts in India in his spouse’s name, purchased several automobiles, obtained real properties, and made other payments to fund his lifestyle.

If convicted, Ramaraj faces up to 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and up to 10 years in prison for each count of unlawful monetary transactions. Ramaraj was arrested on a criminal complaint and ordered detained pending trial before Senior United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton.

Justice Department encouraged anyone who may have been a victim in this case or who may have information regarding this case to contact the FBI’s Washington Field Office at (202) 278-2000 or the FBI’s tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Information may also be submitted online using the FBI’s electronic tips form at https://tips.fbi.gov.