Federal prosecutors stated that a former food delivery driver admitted guilt to working with others in a plan to steal over $2.5 million from DoorDash. They achieved this by making the company pay for deliveries that never actually happened.

Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri admitted guilt in a San Jose federal court on Tuesday, facing one charge of plotting to commit wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Federal prosecutors stated that Devagiri, a 30-year-old from Newport Beach, California, confessed to collaborating with three individuals to commit fraud against a San Francisco delivery firm in 2020 and 2021.

Prosecutors stated that Devagiri used customer accounts to make expensive orders. He then used an employee's login details to access DoorDash's system and move the orders to driver accounts controlled by him and others. Officials added that Devagiri made these fake driver accounts report that the orders were delivered, even though they weren't. He also changed DoorDash's computer system to pay these accounts for deliveries that never happened.

Prosecutors stated that Devagiri would then use DoorDash software to change order statuses from "delivered" back to "in process." He would then manually reassign these orders to driver accounts that he and others controlled, restarting the process.

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

Devagiri is the third person involved to be found guilty for his part in the conspiracy. He could be sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison and fined $250,000. He is due back in court on September 16th.