A California woman pleaded guilty Jan. 16 to defrauding customers around the country by promising them fraudulent debt consolidation services using call-centers based in India.

Sharanjit Kaur, 36, of Fresno, Calif., pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit mail and wire fraud, according to a press release from the United States attorney for the Eastern District of California. According to court documents, from July 2010 to June 2011, Kaur and co-defendant Baljit Singh owned and operated Consumer Financial Services, Consumer Credit Repair and Client Financial Services that were touted to potential customers as debt-consolidation service providers.
They falsely promised that they could obtain low-interest loans for customers, assist in avoiding lawsuits, lower car payments, replace high-interest credit cards with low-interest ones, and correct errors in credit reports, the documents said.

 The defendants used a call center in India from which individuals would call customers.

After luring customers, Kaur and her agents instructed them to send in monthly payments of $500 or more, according to authorities. Even though they collected regular payments from customers, no creditors were contacted, instead forged letters from creditors were sent, indicating that loan modifications had been approved. The funds received from customers were used for by Kaur and Singh for their own benefit or wired to an individual in Kolkata, India.

As part of the plea agreement, Kaur agreed to forfeit $26,943 from bank accounts and a home owned by her. The U.S. attorney’s office has also initiated separate civil actions to recover funds wired by the defendants to India.

Kaur is scheduled to be sentenced April 8 and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Singh, 47, has a hearing set for Feb. 4.