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Fraud

DoorDash Employee Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Steal $2.5 Million

Strategic Insights

— 1 min read

A former DoorDash driver, Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal more than $2.5 million from the San Francisco-based delivery company in 2020 and 2021. Devagiri, 30, of Newport Beach, California, admitted to working with others to cause DoorDash to pay for deliveries that never occurred. He used customer accounts to place high-value orders and then manually reassigned them to driver accounts he controlled, manipulating the company's computer systems to prompt payments for non-existent deliveries.

Key Takeaways:

  • Devagiri pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1349, a single count charge.
  • The scheme resulted in fraudulent payments exceeding $2.5 million, with Devagiri admitting to causing DoorDash to pay for hundreds of non-existent deliveries.
  • Devagiri was a delivery driver for DoorDash at the time of the scheme and used customer accounts to place orders and then reassigned them to driver accounts he controlled.
  • The process of creating and manipulating fake orders took less than five minutes, and was repeated hundreds of times for various orders.
  • Devagiri is the third defendant to be convicted for their role in this conspiracy, with co-defendant Manaswi Mandadapu pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on May 6, 2025, and Tyler Thomas Bottenhorn pleading guilty on November 7, 2023.
  • Devagiri is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman for a status hearing on September 16, 2025, and faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Statistics:

  • $2.5 million: the total amount fraudulent payments made to Devagiri and his co-defendants.
  • $250,000: the maximum fine Devagiri faces.
  • 20 years: the maximum prison sentence Devagiri faces.
  • Hundreds: the number of non-existent deliveries created by Devagiri and his co-defendants.
  • 5 minutes: the time it took Devagiri to create and manipulate fake orders.

Sources:

  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
  • "Former DoorDash Employee Pleads Guilty to Conspiring to Steal $2.5 Million" (August 2024)

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