(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Earlier this month, the Justice Department announced a slew of charges against four Indian nationals for running a human trafficking ring out of several Nebraska hotels.
Court records reveal shocking details about the allegations against Ketankumar Chaudhari, Rashmi Ajit Samani, Amit Chaudhari, Amit Chaudhary, and Maheshkuma Chaudhari. Along with pimping out children, they also allegedly sold drugs, trafficked in stolen goods, harbored fugitives, and committed widespread visa fraud over the last five years out of those hotels, which were wired with hidden cameras.
However, law enforcement’s initial investigation of this crime syndicate had nothing to do with violent crime. Rather, it began as a probe into an Indian call center. According to charging papers, Indian scammers posing as Federal Trade Commission employees would call victims and bilk them for cash under the pretense of a federal investigation. As it turned out, many of those scammers lived in hotels owned by the leader of the conspiracy, Ketankumar, who first entered the country in 2008 as a visitor on a B1/B2 visa.
I dug into this case, and it's so much more disturbing than what's been reported so far.
Indian illegal immigrants allegedly pimped out kids, sold drugs, harbored fugitives and committed rampant fraud over the last five years — working out of hotels wired with hidden cameras.
🧵 https://t.co/sVlPe9K8jv pic.twitter.com/Fx7Tb7actI— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) August 25, 2025
Ketankumar, for his part, is here illegally and has been denied numerous visas on the grounds that he committed fraud, including by entering a sham marriage. Rashmi was also in a sham marriage. In fact, the two are married to each other, and produced a child in America.
About four years ago, an FBI task force officer (TFO) in Sarpy County, Nebraska began investigating them for the more serious criminal activity occurring in several hotels they own.
The TFO had informants working for the hotels and living there as long-term residents. Those sources told the TFO that Ketankumar and his family were illegally importing illegal immigrants from India to work for them.
The TFO and other FBI agents interviewed the employees, who told them that they weren’t paid for their work. In fact, they were often told they owed Ketankumar money for living there.
“In order to pay rent, the employees were solicited for sex acts or solicited to steal property, including retail items like cologne and clothes, electronics, landscaping supplies and tools,” says an Aug. 11 FBI affidavit, which was published by CourtWatch.
Perhaps even more shockingly, the sources told law enforcement that Ketankumar would allow fugitives to stay in his hotels. If they paid him between $20-$40, his front desk worker, Maheshkuma, would tell U.S. Marshals that the people they were looking for weren’t there.
“Hotel staff would book the fugitives in under false names or move their rooms to an undocumented room within the hotel,” the FBI affidavit says.
Law enforcement had several brushes with the Chaudhari crime family, including once in 2022, when Ketankumar staged a phony robbery in a scheme to obtain insurance money and a visa for Rashmi.
In that case, Ketankumar had one of his long-term renters rob one of their businesses, a “Brow and Lash” beauty salon. The robber demanded money, flashed a gun, and then “pushed” Rashmi, which allowed her to apply for a “U visa”— a visa for a victim of serious crime.
In January 2023, law enforcement received a tip that the robbery was staged. Ketankumar arrested for conspiracy to commit a felony and was eventually found guilty of insurance fraud. It’s unclear why the Biden administration didn’t deport him then.
Because he wasn’t deported, Ketankumar was able to victimize an untold number of people over the next two years, including minor females. The females apparently looked so young that not even sex buyers would exploit them, according to court documents.
“Several people commented on how young the minors looked—including potential sex buyers who backed out upon seeing their pictures, citing age concerns and the as of yet unknown suspect who posted online commercial sex act ads featuring the victims,” the FBI affidavit says.
He also allegedly continued to sell drugs from his hotels. Often, the pedophile and drug activities were combined in a horrific fashion.
For instance, when law enforcement tried rescuing one minor victim in 2022, “she fled law enforcement while high on methamphetamine.”
Some of the trafficked women became informants, including one who had prostituted herself so he could live at one of Ketankumar’s hotels.
When the federal agents finally shut down this operation earlier in August, they reportedly recovered at least $565,000 in cash and jewelry. They also rescued 10 minors and 17 adults. More than 100 Nebraskan police officers reportedly worked on the case, along with the feds.
All four defendants are being held in pretrial detention. Headline USA will continue to cover this incredibly disturbing case as it develops.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
