FBI Charges New York Man in $1.7 Million Check Laundering Scheme
Tushal Rathod, a 44-year-old from Van Buren, New York, is facing serious charges after the FBI accused him of laundering counterfeit checks worth $1.7 million. The investigation started when his former partner—the mother of his six-year-old child—tipped off authorities. She’d noticed strange screenshots on his phone, including crypto transactions and messages in languages she didn’t recognize.
According to court documents filed by FBI Special Agent Samuel Morgan, Rathod allegedly received around $1.2 million in Bitcoin through a web of seven bank accounts spread across six different institutions. The scheme apparently unraveled after Rathod kept complaining about his accounts getting shut down.
Wire Fraud, Money Laundering, and a Trail of Fake Companies
Rathod’s charges include conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and more. The FBI claims the crimes took place between late 2021 and mid-2024. Investigators pulled records from Google and Apple tied to his email addresses—tushal27@gmail.com and kluvbb110011@gmail.com—after securing a court order.
What’s interesting, or maybe just brazen, is that Rathod apparently set up two companies as part of the operation. Back in 2016, he registered T3 Telecom, LLC, a telecom business supposedly dealing with network devices. Then in 2021, he incorporated another one, TSV Telecom Constructions LLC.
Between April 2022 and June 2024, authorities say Rathod received over $1.7 million from fraudulent sources—mostly business email compromise (BEC) scams and fake checks. The money flowed through accounts at six banks, five under T3 Telecom and one under TSV Telecom.
BEC scams usually start with hackers stealing employee login details, often through phishing. Once they’re in, they monitor payment schedules and trick vendors into sending money to fake accounts. In Rathod’s case, he allegedly funneled at least $1.2 million of the stolen funds into Bitcoin, sending it to various external wallets.
Banks Caught On—But Not Before Millions Were Moved
Wells Fargo was one of the first to flag suspicious activity in 2022, notifying Rathod that unauthorized money had hit his account before closing it. M&T Bank followed suit, but Rathod reportedly sent them a fake invoice to cover his tracks. When he found out police reports had been filed, he stopped responding.
The FBI says Rathod didn’t work alone. He allegedly recruited his former girlfriend—the owner of the kluvbb110011@gmail.com iCloud account—to help set up businesses and open accounts. Later, between May and July 2024, he supposedly brought family members into the scheme, moving another $1 million through their accounts. Citibank managed to recover $800,000 of the stolen funds.
Agent Morgan noted that BEC scammers often rely on networks of launderers to shuffle money through multiple accounts, making it harder to trace. He called it “layering,” a way to obscure where the cash originally came from.
The Victims—And What’s Next for Rathod
The first known victim was a Rhode Island real estate law firm, which lost about $163,298 in 2022 after falling for an email impersonating a Northpointe Bank employee. A California credit union was hit even harder, losing roughly $8 million to accounts controlled by other scammers tied to the scheme.
If convicted, Rathod could face up to 20 years in prison. Not much is known about his defense yet, but with the FBI’s evidence—including bank records, emails,
