Miami executive sentenced in Brooklyn court for massive fraud

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Eagle photo by Rob Abruzzese

DOWNTOWN — In Brooklyn federal court, Pushpesh Kumar Baid, also known as “PK Jain,” was sentenced to 20 years for his role in schemes to defraud investors in Tradepay Capital LLC, a purported factoring company, and in Luxestreet, Inc., a purported luxury goods pawn shop.

Baid pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in April 2025, approximately one week before the trial was scheduled to commence.

Sentenced by United States Second Circuit Judge Denny Chin, sitting by designation, Baid was preliminarily ordered to pay $35,056,852.83 in restitution to the victims of both the Tradepay and Luxestreet schemes. Additionally, the court ordered Baid to forfeit $2,607,689.00 in ill-gotten gains.

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr. and FBI New York Field Office Acting Assistant Director in Charge Terence G. Reilly announced the sentence.

“Baid and his co-conspirators orchestrated an elaborate fraud, creating sham companies and using straw bank accounts and fraudulent documents to deceive their victims for years into investing millions of dollars into businesses that simply did not exist,” Nocella stated.

Mr. Nocella expressed his appreciation to the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation, for its work on the case.

“Pushpesh Baid repeatedly spun webs of lies to manipulate his investors into pooling tens of millions of dollars in fabricated companies directly utilized for Baid’s personal expenditures,” Reilly added. “Baid abused his position to create fraudulent investment opportunities at the expense of his clients.”

Baid pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the Tradepay scheme. As part of his plea, Baid also admitted to his participation in the Luxestreet scheme. He operated from Miami.

Baid was the Business Head of Tradepay, which presented itself as an international factoring business run by an executive team experienced in factoring invoices for specific industries and regions.

Factoring involves selling a discounted invoice to a third party. In a factoring transaction, the seller of an invoice obtains immediate funding from the buyer of the invoice, and the buyer makes a profit when the invoice is paid in full.

Between approximately April 2017 and October 2019, Baid and his co-conspirators implemented a scheme to defraud investors in Tradepay, making it appear that Tradepay was a legitimate and successful business.

Hundreds of invoices from businesses that Tradepay claimed to be factoring were fraudulent and included fake signatures on both sides of the transactions.

Baid and his co-conspirators also funneled millions of dollars of investors’ funds — which they said would be sent to Tradepay’s business partners — through a sprawling network of bank accounts that Baid controlled through shell entities and straw signatories.

From those accounts, Baid and his co-conspirators spent millions of dollars on personal expenses, including on luxury cars and watches.

Baid even lied about his identity, concealing his real name from investors to obscure the fact that he was wanted for criminal offenses abroad.

Investors in Tradepay initially received payments on the invoices, which led them to continue contributing large sums of capital. Around July 2019, however, the payments on the invoices stopped, resulting in approximately $35 million in losses.

In 2018, Baid founded a separate company called Asset Capital Partners, which began doing business as Luxestreet.

Baid and his co-conspirators claimed that Luxestreet operated like a pawn shop for high-end goods, including luxury watches, and solicited investment in the business. In reality, Luxestreet contracts were forged, and the physical watches held by the company were knockoffs.

To further this fraud, the defendant and his co-conspirators agreed to create fake websites, use fake phone numbers, and generate fake contracts and valuation reports for the knockoff watches.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Business and Securities Fraud Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Dylan A. Stern, Benjamin Weintraub and Molly N. Delaney are in charge of the prosecution. Assistant United States Attorney Claire Kedeshian of the Office’s Asset Forfeiture Section is handling forfeiture matters.