The Pitt County Sheriff’s Office has announced the arrest of 37-year-old Nisarg Mayank Acharya of Elon in connection with a major scam that defrauded a Wayne County resident of $61,000. The investigation was led by detectives from the Major Crimes Unit, who acted after being alerted to the incident by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office on March 17.
The fraud reportedly occurred at a business complex located at 5900 MLK Highway. The victim was tricked into handing over $39,000 in cash to the scammer.
Following the alert, Pitt County detectives swiftly launched an investigation. By March 31, they had obtained arrest warrants for Acharya on two counts of Obtaining Property by False Pretenses and two counts of Conspiracy to Commit the same offense. Acharya was subsequently entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database.
On April 10, Acharya was located and arrested by the Chapel Hill Police Department. He was later released on a $5,000 secured bond and has a court appearance scheduled for April 16 in Pitt County District Court.
Detectives continued pursuing leads and executed multiple search warrants. On May 8, a court order granted permission to seize funds from an online cryptocurrency account linked to the scam. By May 20, $20,000 in cryptocurrency was successfully returned to the victim—an unusual recovery in such cases.
Authorities believe other individuals involved in the scam are operating from outside the United States and are currently beyond the reach of local law enforcement.
