FBI’s most wanted fraudster Manjit Singh Bedi sent back to US from India a month after arrest
PTC Web Desk: Manjit Singh Bedi, a 64-year-old man listed among the FBI’s most wanted fraudsters, has been brought back to the United States about a month after his arrest in India by the Punjab Police. FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed the development on Thursday.
Bedi landed in Seattle earlier this week and is due to make his first court appearance on Friday.
In a post on X, Patel wrote, “Back in the US. Manjit Singh Bedi, one of the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters, arrested in September in India.” He called the return another step forward for the bureau’s fugitive recovery programme.
Bedi lives in Kent, Washington, and earlier ran an Asian grocery store in Tacoma. Prosecutors allege that between 2024 and 2025 he cheated the US government out of at least $600,000 in food assistance funds.
According to the indictment, Bedi trafficked benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programme (SNAP). Authorities say he swiped customers’ Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards for purchases that never took place, handed back roughly half the amount to the cardholders in cash, and kept the remainder.
A grand jury indicted him in April on six counts of wire fraud and he pleaded not guilty. Federal authorities say he then left for Canada and later went on to India, his home country.
The US Attorney’s Office has said it will ask the court to keep Bedi in custody until trial, pointing to his means and his demonstrated willingness to flee.
USDA Inspector General John Walk said Bedi “stole from Americans who truly needed help.” He added that the grocery store functioned like a front for money laundering.
Bedi is the fifth person on the list to be taken into custody, a development the FBI announced in September. Patel said six fugitives have been captured since the list was created about three months ago. Together, those named on it are linked to more than $2 billion in alleged fraud and have spent nearly 4,000 days on the run.
Patel also said the FBI has completed 260 extraditions and removals in the past 20 months, a rise of more than 70 per cent compared with the previous 20-month period. He credited cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies for the increase.
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