Federal authorities have charged Monishkumar Kirankumar Doshi Shah, owner of several jewelry companies in New York City’s Diamond District, with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of operating and aiding and abetting the operation of an unlicensed money transmitting business.
According to a complaint filed Feb. 26 in New Jersey federal court, Shah, a 39-year-old resident of Jersey City and Mumbai who’s gone by the name Monish Doshi Shah, regularly shipped goods from Turkey or India to two companies he owned in South Korea, Pani Trading and KT International. There, employees would change shipping labels to make it appear that the jewelry came from South Korea, rather than Turkey and India, to evade U.S. Customs duties from those nations, authorities charged.
Shah also allegedly used three of his jewelry businesses—MKore, MKore USA, and Vruman Corp.—to conduct illegal financial transactions. Prosecutors said that Shah and co-conspirators sometimes converted more than a million dollars of cash a day into checks or wire transfers, in exchange for a 2% fee. None of the companies was registered as a money-transmitting business with New York, New Jersey, or the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, they said.
Shah was arrested last weekend. He was released on $100,000 bond, with home detention and location monitoring, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Last September, five New York City diamond and jewelry dealers were also charged with processing illegal money transfers. Those cases remain ongoing.
Shah’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.
(Photo: Getty Images)
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