Pushpesh Kumar Baid and His Co-Conspirators Operated Sham Businesses that Defrauded Investors Out of Tens of Millions of Dollars
In federal court in Brooklyn, Pushpesh Kumar Baid, also known as “PK Jain,” was sentenced by United States Second Circuit Judge Denny Chin, sitting by designation, to 20 years’ imprisonment for his role in schemes to defraud investors in Tradepay Capital LLC (“Tradepay”), a purported factoring company, and in Luxestreet, Inc. (Luxestreet), a purported luxury goods pawn shop. Baid pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in April 2025, approximately one week before trial was scheduled to commence. As part of the sentence, Baid was preliminarily ordered to pay $35,056,852.83 in restitution to the victims of both the Tradepay and Luxestreet schemes. Additionally, the Court ordered Baid to forfeit $2,607,689.00 in ill-gotten gains.
Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York and Terence G. Reilly, Acting Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, New York Field Office, (FBI), announced the sentence.
“Baid and his co-conspirators orchestrated an elaborate fraud, creating sham companies and using straw bank accounts and fraudulent documents to deceive their victims for years into investing millions of dollars into businesses that simply did not exist,” stated United States Attorney Nocella. “The significant sentence imposed today should send a message to anyone who chooses to enrich themself through fraud that false statements to investors will lead to a prison term.”
Mr. Nocella expressed his appreciation to the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation for its work on the case.
“Pushpesh Baid repeatedly spun webs of lies to manipulate his investors into pooling tens of millions of dollars in fabricated companies directly utilized for Baid’s personal expenditures” stated Acting FBI Assistant Director in Charge Reilly. “Baid abused his position to create fraudulent investment opportunities at the expense of his clients. The FBI remains dedicated to exposing those who implement deceitful practices designed to betray investors’ trust for selfish financial gain.”
Baid pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the Tradepay scheme. As part of his plea, Baid also admitted to his participation in the Luxestreet scheme. Details of the schemes, as reflected in court filings, are set forth below.
Tradepay Scheme
Baid was the Business Head of Tradepay, which purported to be an international factoring business run by an executive team experienced in factoring invoices in particular industries and geographic regions. Factoring involves the sale of an invoice to a third party at a discount. In a factoring transaction, the seller of an invoice obtains immediate funding from the buyer of the invoice, and the buyer of the invoice makes a profit when the invoice is paid in full.
Between approximately April 2017 and October 2019, Baid and his co-conspirators implemented a scheme to defraud investors in Tradepay, making it appear that Tradepay was a legitimate and successful business when it was, in fact, an elaborate scam. For example, hundreds of invoices from various businesses that Tradepay purported to be factoring were fraudulent and included fake signatures on both sides of the supposed transactions. Baid and his co-conspirators also funneled millions of dollars of investors’ funds—which they represented would be sent to Tradepay’s business partners—through a sprawling network of bank accounts that Baid controlled through shell entities and straw signatories. From those accounts, Baid and his co-conspirators spent millions of dollars on personal expenses, including on luxury cars and watches. Baid even lied about his identity, concealing his real name from investors to obscure the fact that he was wanted for criminal offenses abroad.
Investors in Tradepay initially received payments on the invoices, which led them to continue contributing large sums of capital. By approximately July 2019, however, the payments on the invoices stopped, resulting in approximately $35 million in losses.
Luxestreet Scheme
In 2018, Baid founded a separate company called Asset Capital Partners, which began doing business as Luxestreet. Baid and his co-conspirators claimed that Luxestreet operated like a pawn shop for high end goods, including luxury watches, and solicited investment in the business. In reality, Luxestreet contracts were forged and the physical watches held by the company were knockoffs. To further this fraud and continue to deceive their investors, the defendant and his co-conspirators agreed to create fake websites, use fake phone numbers, and generate fake contracts and valuation reports for the knockoff watches.
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