A former DoorDash delivery driver from California has admitted to stealing more than $2.5 million through a fake delivery scheme. Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri, 30, pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose to a wire fraud conspiracy charge.
He worked with three others during 2020 and 2021 to trick DoorDash’s system into paying for food deliveries that never happened. Prosecutors said Devagiri used customer accounts to place expensive fake orders. Then, using a DoorDash employee’s login, he manually reassigned those orders to driver accounts that he and his team controlled.
The fake drivers marked the orders as “delivered,” even though nothing was delivered. This allowed DoorDash’s system to release payments for the non-existent deliveries. Devagiri even reset the system to make it look like the same orders were still being processed, so they could repeat the scam again and again.
One of the employees involved in the scam already pleaded guilty back in November 2023. Devagiri is now the third person to be convicted in this case.
He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. His sentencing is scheduled for September 16.
