Telugu man defrauds San Francisco food delivery firm of $2.5 million; pleads guilty

Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri, who was a delivery driver for DoorDash, admitted to working with two others in 2020 and 2021 to cause the firm to pay for deliveries that never occurred.

Hyderabad: A 30-year-old Telugu-origin man Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri has pleaded guilty in the federal court of the United States to conspiring to steal more than $2.5 million from DoorDash, Inc., a San Francisco-based delivery company.

Chaitanya Reddy, a resident of Newport Beach, California, and three other defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2024. He was charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and pleaded guilty to that count.

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Chaitanya Reddy, who was a delivery driver for DoorDash orders, admitted to working with two others in 2020 and 2021 to cause the firm to pay for deliveries that never occurred.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office (Northern District of California), Chaitanya Reddy would place high value orders using customer accounts and manually reassign DoorDash orders to driver accounts and manipulate the delivery company’s software to pay the fraudulent driver accounts for the non-existent deliveries.

“Under the scheme, Chaitanya Reddy used customer accounts to place high value orders and then, using an employee’s credentials to gain access to DoorDash software, manually reassigned DoorDash orders to driver accounts that he and others controlled. Chaitanya Reddy then caused the fraudulent driver accounts to report that the orders had been delivered, when they had not, and manipulated DoorDash’s computer systems to prompt DoorDash to pay the fraudulent driver accounts for the non-existent deliveries. Chaitanya Reddy would then use DoorDash software to change the orders from “delivered” status to “in process” status and manually reassign the orders to driver accounts he and others controlled, beginning the process again. This procedure usually took less than five minutes, and was repeated hundreds of times for many of the orders. The scheme resulted in fraudulent payments exceeding $2.5 million,” according to an official press release.

Acting United States Attorney Patrick D. Robbins and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge Sanjay Virmani made the announcement. Chaitanya Reddy is the third defendant to be convicted for his role in this conspiracy. Co-defendant Manaswi Mandadapu pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on May 6, 2025. Tyler Thomas Bottenhorn, who was separately charged, pleaded guilty on November 7, 2023.

Chaitanya Reddy is next scheduled to appear before US District Judge Beth Labson Freeman for a status hearing on September 16. He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael G. Pitman is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Sahib Kaur. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI, the release said.