A former delivery driver has admitted to conspiring with others to steal over $2.5 million from DoorDash by creating fake orders and tricking the company into paying for them, according to federal prosecutors.

Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri admitted guilt in a San Jose federal court on Tuesday, charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, according to the US Attorney's Office.

Devagiri, 30, from Newport Beach, California, has admitted to working with three others in 2020 and 2021 to defraud a San Francisco-based delivery company, according to federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors stated that Devagiri allegedly used customer accounts to place large orders, then used an employee's login details to access DoorDash's software. He then manually reassigned these orders to driver accounts controlled by him and his accomplices. According to officials, Devagiri subsequently manipulated the system by having these fake driver accounts report deliveries that never happened, thus defrauding DoorDash into paying for non-existent orders.

Prosecutors allege that Devagiri then exploited DoorDash's software by altering order statuses from "delivered" back to "processing." He then manually reassigned these orders to driver accounts controlled by himself and others, effectively restarting the delivery process from the beginning.

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

Devagiri, the third defendant convicted for his involvement in the conspiracy, faces a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 16th.