Abdul Mohammed of Indianapolis, Indiana, was recently served with an indictment returned by the Belmont County grand jury, according to a press release distributed by Belmont County Prosecutor Kevin Flanagan.
Flanagan stated that the indictment stems from allegations that Mohammed was a participant in a nationwide computer and phone scam that targeted certain individuals, including a resident of Belmont County.
Flanagan said that the Belmont County case actually started with the arrest and prosecution of an individual from China, Siqi Yu, who unlawfully entered the country through Mexico and requested asylum. Months later, Yu joined a group that was targeting individuals through a computer and phone scam. One such person targeted was from Belmont County, according to Flanagan.
Yu’s role was to travel throughout the country and collect money from unsuspecting victims of the scam. Flanagan said that Mohammed’s role, according to the recently returned indictment, is similar to Yu’s role. Both, according to Flanagan, were utilized by other members of the scam to travel long distances to personally collect the money from the victims and return the money to the members of the criminal organization.
While Flanagan could not get into the details of Mohammed’s involvement given that the case is ongoing, he did say that it was actually members of the Penn County Sheriff’s Office in South Dakota that notified the Belmont County Sheriff’s Office about Mohammed’s possible involvement with the victim from Belmont County.
Flanagan said, “The evidence will show that we knew one of our residents turned over cash to multiple individuals on at least 4-5 occasions. Other than Yu, who was arrested while trying to collect money from our victim, the identities of the other individuals were not known. That was until we received the call from South Dakota.”
Flanagan added that the Penn County authorities provided cellular telephone data that connects Mohammed to Belmont County and specifically to the same victim as in the Yu case.
Flanagan noted that the Yu case ended in 2025, and he received a sentence of eight to twelve years in prison. At the time, Yu and his attorney claimed that he was just a small part of the scam and that he should not receive a prison sentence.
“Obviously, we disagreed with that argument and Judge Vavra imposed the appropriate sentence for Yu, under the circumstances. We were also able to get a greater sentence by elevating the charge because of the crime being a ‘pattern of corrupt activity’ which is also known as a RICO indictment. We did the same thing in Mohammed’s case as well,” said the prosecutor.
Flanagan said that court proceedings will begin when Mohammed is returned from South Dakota where he is currently being held pending extradition to Belmont County.
