Earlier today in Brooklyn federal court, Pushpesh Kumar Baid, also known as “PK Jain,” was sentenced to 20 years in prison for his involvement in schemes that defrauded investors of millions of dollars. The sentencing was delivered by United States Second Circuit Judge Denny Chin, who sat by designation. Baid pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in April 2025, shortly before his trial was scheduled to begin.
Baid’s sentence includes a preliminary order to pay $35,056,852.83 in restitution to the victims of the Tradepay Capital LLC (“Tradepay”) and Luxestreet, Inc. (“Luxestreet”) schemes. Additionally, he must forfeit $2,607,689.00 obtained through fraudulent means.
Joseph Nocella, Jr., United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Terence G. Reilly, Acting Assistant Director in Charge at the FBI’s New York Field Office, announced the sentencing.
“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.”
Nocella also thanked the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation division 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.”
According to court records and Baid’s plea agreement, he admitted guilt regarding both schemes:
In the Tradepay scheme between April 2017 and October 2019, Baid served as Business Head at Tradepay—a company falsely presented as an international factoring business with expertise across various industries and regions. Factoring involves selling invoices at a discount; however, hundreds of invoices supposedly factored by Tradepay were found fraudulent with forged signatures on both sides. Investors’ funds were moved through shell entities and straw signatories controlled by Baid before being used on personal expenses such as luxury cars and watches. To conceal his identity from investors—and hide that he was wanted abroad—Baid used an alias.
Investors initially received returns but payments stopped around July 2019 resulting in about $35 million lost.
In 2018, Baid founded Asset Capital Partners doing business as Luxestreet—a company advertised as a pawn shop specializing in high-end goods like luxury watches. In reality, contracts were forged and most physical watches were knockoffs rather than genuine items. The scheme included fake websites, phone numbers, contracts and valuation reports intended to mislead investors further.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Dylan A. Stern, Benjamin Weintraub and Molly N. Delaney from the Business and Securities Fraud Section; forfeiture matters were handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Claire Kedeshian from the Asset Forfeiture Section.
The U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York serves as the federal prosecutor's office covering Brooklyn (where this case was heard), Queens, Staten Island, Nassau County and Suffolk County with offices located in Brooklyn and Central Islip official website. This office prosecutes federal crimes—including complex fraud cases such as this one—and represents civil matters within these jurisdictions official website.
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