Federal prosecutors announced that a former food delivery driver admitted guilt to orchestrating a conspiracy to defraud DoorDash of over $2.5 million, achieved by fraudulently inducing the company to pay for fictitious deliveries.

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

Devagiri, 30, residing in Newport Beach, California, confessed to conspiring with three accomplices throughout 2020 and 2021 to perpetrate a fraud against a San Francisco-based delivery enterprise, according to federal prosecutors.

Prosecutors alleged that Devagiri exploited customer accounts to initiate substantial orders, subsequently leveraging an employee's credentials to infiltrate DoorDash's software. He purportedly reassigned these orders to driver accounts under his and his associates' control. Furthermore, officials stated that Devagiri allegedly orchestrated these fraudulent driver accounts to falsely report successful deliveries, thereby manipulating DoorDash's systems into remunerating these accounts for services never rendered.

Prosecutors alleged that Devagiri exploited the DoorDash system by manipulating order statuses from "delivered" back to "in process," then manually reassigning them to driver accounts under his and his associates' control, effectively initiating a fraudulent cycle.

The disgraced ex-employee implicated in the fraud case pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2023, confessing to his participation in the elaborate scheme, according to prosecuting attorneys.

Devagiri, the third defendant implicated in this conspiracy, now faces conviction, potentially incurring a sentence of up to twenty years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine; his next court appearance is scheduled for September 16th.