Federal prosecutors stated that a former food delivery driver admitted guilt to working with others in a scheme that defrauded DoorDash of over $2.5 million by falsely claiming payments for deliveries that never took place.

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

Federal prosecutors stated that Devagiri, 30, from Newport Beach, California, confessed to collaborating with three individuals in 2020 and 2021 to cheat a delivery firm based in San Francisco.

Prosecutors stated that Devagiri misused customer accounts to make large orders. He then used an employee's login details to access DoorDash's system and change the orders to driver accounts managed by him and others. According to officials, Devagiri then made these fake driver accounts claim they had delivered the orders, even though they hadn'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 alter the orders' status from "delivered" back to "in process," and then he would manually reassign the orders to driver accounts managed by him and others, restarting the process.

Prosecutors stated that the former employee involved in the scam pleaded guilty in November 2023 to conspiring to commit wire fraud 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.