CBI Chargesheet for Amazon Cheating in US & Mexico

New Delhi, Jan 9 (PTI) The CBI has filed a charge sheet against three persons and a company for allegedly cheating customers of Amazon in the United States and Mexico by not supplying products bought through the online marketplace, officials said Tuesday.

The agency has invoked IPC sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) and 471 (forgery) among others against Ayush Kumar Gupta, Piyush Gupta, Om Prakash Gupta and Gupta Trading Co, they said.

The agency had started the investigation by registering an FIR against them on September 27, 2022, on a complaint from the Corporate Counsel of Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd. on behalf of Amazon.com.Inc and Amazon Seller Services Pvt Ltd, the officials in the know of the developments said.

It is alleged that a fraud was perpetrated by a third-party seller account registered in 2019 as 'Time of World', they said.

The accused allegedly sold designer watches and sunglasses in the USA and Mexico but failed to ship the products to the customers as promised, resulting in refunds to the customers and a loss of approximately USD 1.08 lakh (around Rs 89.7 lakh) and MXN 2,499.20 (around Rs 12,331.13) to Amazon, the agency has said.

The complaint is understood to have carried a number of allegations such as non-delivery of products, empty boxes sent to customers, counterfeit products or unverified products, submission of fake shipping bills and forged invoices by the accused besides delayed order updates and delayed shipments, the officials said.

During the investigation, the CBI had questioned the accused on the allegations which they had denied, the officials said.

They had claimed that the allegations were false and frivolous as delivery proof and the way-bill showed the completion of delivery of the products to the customers and the weight reflected in the shipping information also showed the existence of the product inside the box, they said.

The CBI had asked the accused to show proof of procurement of the products sold by them but they could not produce evidence to buttress their claims, officials said.