Federal prosecutors have stated that a former food delivery driver worked with others to steal over $2.5 million from DoorDash by making the company pay for deliveries that never actually happened.

The US Attorney's Office announced that Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri admitted guilt in a San Jose federal court on Tuesday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Federal prosecutors say that Devagiri, a 30-year-old living in Newport Beach, California, worked with three others to trick a delivery company based in San Francisco in both 2020 and 2021.

According to the prosecutor, Devagiri allegedly used customer accounts to place large orders. He then reportedly used employee login details to access DoorDash's system and manually reassign these orders to driver accounts controlled by him and his accomplices. Furthermore, authorities stated that he manipulated DoorDash's computer system to mark fake driver accounts as "delivered," even when no actual delivery took place, causing DoorDash to pay these accounts for deliveries that never happened.

Prosecutors stated that Devagiri then used DoorDash's software to change the order status from "delivered" back to "processing." He allegedly restarted the fraud by manually reassigning the orders to driver accounts controlled by himself and his accomplices.

Prosecutors stated that a former employee involved in this fraud case pleaded guilty in November 2023 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, admitting their participation in the scheme.

Devagiri is the third person found guilty in this conspiracy case and could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine; his next court appearance is scheduled for September 16th.