Hyderabad family duped of Rs.3.25 Crore in fake Stanford University admission in USA
Hyderabad: A relative working in White house, admission in Stanford University and an acquaintance with Kanchi Kamakshi temple’s main priest – these are web of lies through which a couple deceived and siphoned around Rs 3.2 crores from the victim residing in one of the gated communities in the city under the pretext of securing admission in Stanford University for his son.
According to the victim, Prasad (name changed) he got acquainted with a couple P. Raghuram and P. Sunitha. One day Prasad told him about his aspiration to send his Intermediate studying son to abroad for higher education and asked about the possibility of any ‘management quota’ seats in the USA.
Taking this as an opportunity the couple approached Prasad stating that management quota seats are ‘available’ in the top University, Stanford. Further they informed Prasad that their relative named Sumanth works in the White House in America and he can help to reduce the fee in the Stanford University.
Subsequently the couple informed that the cost of the management quota seat would be Rs 3.25 crores for the Undergraduate seat. While Prasad was thinking about the opportunity to send his son abroad, on the following day the couple approached him and informed that they had already paid the amount to the University for undergraduate courses through Sumanth from the White House.The couple extracted Rs 3.2 crores on various occasions from Prasad.
However, despite the payments, the couple failed to secure the promised admission and instead began imposing additional conditions and making further financial demands. “After the payment, We frequently asked teh couple about the status and suddenly they came up with a new condition of getting a score above 1500 out of 1600 SAT scores but at the time of the discussion, they didn’t mention this condition,” said the victim in his complaint copy. Subsequently the couple maintained cordial relations with the Prasad’s family and went on trips to various places like Shimla, Bangalore and Kanchipuram.
Disguise in the name of devotion
“The accused couple also claimed to have good relations with Kanchi Kamakshi temple’s main priest Nataraja Shashtri informed that he used to visit their flat, thus making Prasad and his family to trust them blindly in the guise of devotion,” added the victim’s family.
Since the University planning wasn’t working properly, Prasad requested the update from Raghuram. Subsequently Raghuram claimed to visit the USA and speed up the process of admission. After two days he made a whatsapp call to Prasad and informed that the admissions officer at Stanford did not give the undergraduate seat as the marks were low and informed about another admission opportunity in University of South Carolina on a conditional admission.
Raghuram sent a photo of the fee structure of Stanford and stated it will cost 9.5 million US dollars, which is around 76.30 crore rupees approximately, which Prasad denied to pay.
After some time Raghuram again called the Prasad on Whatsapp and informed that it won’t cost as much, as Sumanth had spoken to some officer in the White House to make a 25% discount and now the fee is reduced to 7.125 million USD and after deducting the amount paid earlier now they had to pay 6.865 million USD (approx. 55 crores).
Following which Raghuram said that he paid 19 crores and his wife Sunitha said she had paid 36 crores for the Post Graduate seat of Stanford for Chemical Engineering without confirming with Prasad. Then they started asking them to pay the said amount of 55 crores.Prasad refused to pay due to the lack of proof of payment to Stanford University. Prasad told the couple that he would pay the amount if proofs are shown.
After realizing the scam of the couple who collected a huge amount under the guise of providing an admission seat to his son in Stanford University and sent a forged, fabricated letter pertaining to the University of South Carolina admission seat through WhatsApp to his son to believe them as genuine. Prasad lodged a complaint with Cyberabad police who registered a case and started investigation.
