Aldie man sentenced to seven years and six months in prison for multi-million-dollar investment scheme

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – An Aldie man was sentenced today to seven years and six months in prison for scheme to defraud dozens of investors in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Missouri, and elsewhere, causing $15 million in losses.

According to court documents, Babu Ramaraj, 47, owned DAB Inspection and Consulting Services, LLC (DAB), a small home contractor with modest revenues doing patio and deck projects. Ramaraj claimed to investors and potential investors that DAB had lucrative contracts with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and others, and was a joint venture partner on a Washington DC Water Clean Rivers Project, for tens of millions of dollars each, supposedly to perform engineering inspection work on huge infrastructure projects.

Ramaraj claimed he needed to make large upfront bond payments to secure the work but could not obtain bank financing because of the relative youth of DAB as a company and the speed with which DAB needed to secure the funding, which was supposedly not feasible with banks.

In support of his claims, Ramaraj supplied to victims falsified contract award letters, invoices, DAB financial records, and other documents to induce dozens of investors to loan funds to DAB. The supposed bonds were never paid.

From January 2020 through May 2024, Ramaraj pitched individuals, including members of his Loudon County cricket league, the opportunity to loan DAB money at high interest rates, annualized at 30% or more.  Using money from later investors, Ramaraj paid initial investors the promised returns to entice them to continue investing and to recruit other friends and family to invest.

After being confronted by two investors and signing an acknowledgment in October 2023 that he had "tampered" with numerous contracts and financial records, Ramaraj continued to make material misrepresentations concerning DAB to other investors and potential investors. Ramaraj was pitching investors up to the time he was arrested on May 30, 2024. He has been held in custody as a flight risk since his arrest.

Instead of paying for the promised bonds, Ramaraj electronically transferred investor funds to his online brokerage accounts to engage in securities trades; wired over $1 million to accounts in India; purchased several automobiles, including several Teslas; obtained real properties; incurred millions in stock market trading losses, and made other payments to fund his lifestyle. Ramaraj took in nearly $40 million and caused losses to investors of approximately $15 million.

In addition to the prison sentence, the Court ordered Ramaraj to pay over $15 million in restitution.

Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and David E. Geist, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal and Cyber Division, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton. The Virginia State Corporation Commission assisted in the investigation of this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell L. Carlberg prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Annie Zanobini is handling asset recovery efforts in the case.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:24-cr-147.