Federal prosecutors stated that a former food delivery driver admitted to working with others in a scheme to steal over $2.5 million from DoorDash by making the company pay for fake deliveries.

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

Devagiri, 30, from Newport Beach, California, has confessed to working with three other people to commit fraud against a delivery company in San Francisco during 2020 and 2021, according to federal prosecutors.

According to prosecutors, 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 that he and his group controlled. Officials stated that Devagiri then made these fake driver accounts claim the orders were delivered, even though they weren't, and tricked DoorDash's system into paying them for these fake deliveries.

Prosecutors stated that Devagiri then used DoorDash software to change the orders' status from "delivered" back to "in process". He then reassigned these orders to driver accounts controlled by him and others, effectively restarting the process.

Prosecutors stated that the employee, who is no longer working at the company, admitted guilt in November 2023 for planning wire fraud and confessed to participating in the fraudulent activity.

Devagiri is the third person found guilty for his part in the conspiracy, and 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.