Former DoorDash Driver Pleads Guilty to Fraud Scheme

California

Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri, a 30-year-old former DoorDash driver from Newport Beach, California, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, acknowledging his involvement in a scheme that attempted to defraud DoorDash out of more than $2.5 million. The guilty plea was entered in a federal court in San Jose on Tuesday.

The fraudulent activities took place during the years 2020 and 2021, while Devagiri was still an active employee at DoorDash, a company headquartered in San Francisco. His involvement in the conspiracy is part of a larger case that has already seen multiple individuals indicted.

Devagiri is the third defendant to be convicted in connection with this fraud case, which includes three other individuals indicted by a federal grand jury in August 2024. He was arrested on October 4, 2024, alongside co-defendants Manaswi Mandadapu and Tyler Thomas Bottenhorn. Mandadapu later pleaded guilty to similar charges on May 6, 2025, while Bottenhorn, who had a brief tenure with DoorDash in 2020, also entered a guilty plea in November 2023 to a different charge.

Details of the Scheme

The deceptive tactics employed by Devagiri involved placing high-priced orders using customer accounts without authorization. He exploited an employee’s credentials to gain access to DoorDash’s internal software, which allowed him to manually reassign the fraudulent orders to accounts that he controlled.

Once he reassigned these orders, Devagiri falsely marked them as completed in the company’s system, triggering payments for deliveries that never took place. He would then report these non-existent deliveries as successful. Furthermore, after marking the orders as completed, he would change the status back to “in process,” allowing him to carry out the scheme repeatedly. Reports indicate that the entire process could be executed in less than five minutes for each order.

This fraudulent process was repeated extensively, affecting hundreds of orders cumulatively leading to over $2.5 million in illicit payments from DoorDash.

Legal Consequences

Devagiri now faces significant legal repercussions as he awaits sentencing. The maximum penalty he could receive is 20 years in prison along with a potential fine of $250,000. His next court status hearing is scheduled for September 16, 2025.

Background on DoorDash and Fraud Schemes

DoorDash is widely recognized as one of the leading food delivery platforms in the United States, providing services to millions of customers and partnering with countless restaurants. The company has been the target of fraud schemes before, as the nature of its business allows for various vulnerabilities in its systems.

This case highlights the critical need for companies like DoorDash to implement stronger measures to protect their software and customer information from exploitation. The ongoing legal proceedings may shed light on the larger implications of fraud within the online delivery industry.