“Goel and Raheja made decisions about which guests to keep and which to cancel based in part on their racial prejudices and discrimination,” the superseding indictment states.
The defendants, according to the DOJ, tried to avoid renting to guests they perceived to be Black and in this way deprived them of their reservations and otherwise caused these guests to suffer monetary losses when their reservations were canceled.
They refused refunds and posted misleading or false reviews, according to the documents, which said Goel would threaten and insult customer service representatives, sometimes resulting in representatives denying refunds to which guests were entitled.
The cousins’ activity was first reported in 2019 by Vice’s Allie Conti, who detailed her experience of being scammed during a trip to Chicago. She was moved to a flophouse — supposedly after the toilet flooded at her original rental — and told to leave early, according to Conti, who said she was refunded only $399 of the $1,221.10 she spent.
Conti became suspicious and discovered that her host had called her from an untraceable Google number and used a stock photo for their profile picture, she reported. She kept digging, and a trail of evidence eventually led her to Goel, according to Vice.