Federal prosecutors allege that a former food delivery driver has pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to defraud DoorDash of over $2.5 million by creating fictitious orders and inducing the company to pay for them.

Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri pleaded guilty on Tuesday in a San Jose federal court to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Devagiri, 30, of Newport Beach, California, has conceded to colluding with three accomplices throughout 2020 and 2021 in a scheme to defraud a San Francisco-based delivery firm, according to allegations leveled by federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors allege that Devagiri exploited customer accounts to place substantial orders, subsequently utilizing an employee's credentials to gain unauthorized access to DoorDash's internal software, where he manually reassigned these orders to driver accounts under his and his accomplices' control; furthermore, Devagiri purportedly orchestrated the fabrication of delivery confirmations for these phantom orders, manipulating DoorDash's computer system to disburse payments to the fraudulent driver accounts for services never rendered, according to official statements.

Subsequently, Devagiri allegedly exploited DoorDash's software, manipulating order statuses from "delivered" back to "processing" and manually reassigning these orders to driver accounts controlled by him and his accomplices, thereby initiating a fraudulent delivery cycle from its inception, according to prosecutorial claims.

In November 2023, the former employee pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and admitted to participating in the scheme, as alleged by prosecutors, in connection with the fraud case.

Devagiri, the third defendant convicted for his involvement in the conspiracy, faces a potential sentence of up to twenty years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine; he is scheduled to reappear in court on September 16th.