Federal prosecutors say two cousins quietly ran a yearslong double-booking hustle that pulled in $8.5 million. Per the Los Angeles Times, authorities say Shray Goel, 37, of Calabasas, California, and his cousin, 36-year-old Denver resident Shaunik Raheja, used fake host names and other people's identities from 2017 to 2019 to list short-term rentals on sites including Airbnb and Vrbo. By posting the same properties multiple times at different prices, they then were said to have picked the highest-paying guests and canceled the rest, often blaming phantom plumbing or maintenance problems and then sending rejected customers to alternate locations.
Goel and Raheja were also said to have created phony reviews about customers who complained. Prosecutors say the operation involved more than 10,000 reservations and a mix of owned and leased homes, run through entities with names like Abbot Pacific LLC and Jet Set Work LLC. The indictment also accuses the pair of disproportionately canceling bookings made by guests perceived to be Black, though neither man admitted to that or to the scheme's alleged scale.
Goel has pleaded guilty to wire fraud, Raheja to obstruction of justice for lying to federal agents. Sentencing is set for Aug. 14 and Sept. 11, with maximum prison terms of 20 and 10 years, respectively, per a release. The Commercial Appeal has more on how to protect yourself against such a scheme. (This Vice writer stumbled upon the scam years ago.)
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uBlock 
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Ghostery 
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