Manjit Singh Bedi, a 64-year-old fugitive featured on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list, has been returned to the United States about a month after his arrest by the Punjab Police in India. FBI Director Kash Patel announced the development on Thursday, stating that Bedi arrived in Seattle this week and is scheduled to make his initial court appearance on Friday.
“Back in the US. Manjit Singh Bedi, one of the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters, arrested in September in India,” Patel wrote in a post on X. He described Bedi’s return as another milestone in the FBI’s fugitive recovery initiative.
Bedi, a resident of Kent, Washington, previously owned an Asian grocery store in Tacoma. He is accused of defrauding the US government of at least $600,000 in food assistance benefits between 2024 and 2025.
According to the indictment, Bedi allegedly engaged in the trafficking of benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a US government programme that helps eligible individuals and families purchase food.
Prosecutors allege that he used beneficiaries’ Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards to process fraudulent food purchases. He allegedly returned half of the transaction value to cardholders in cash and kept the remaining amount.
Bedi was indicted in April on six counts of wire fraud. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and the allegations against him have not yet been tested in court.
Following the indictment, federal authorities said Bedi fled to Canada before escaping to India, his home country. The US Attorney’s Office has said it will ask the court to keep him in custody before trial, citing his alleged willingness and ability to flee.
Commenting on the case, US Department of Agriculture Inspector General John Walk said Bedi “stole from Americans who truly needed help”. Walk also alleged that Bedi’s grocery store operated like a money-laundering front.
Bedi became the fifth person on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list to be apprehended when his arrest in India was announced in September. Patel said six fugitives had been captured since the list was created about three months earlier.
According to the FBI director, the individuals featured on the list are collectively linked to more than $2 billion in alleged fraud, and they had spent a combined total of nearly 4,000 days on the run.
Patel also said the FBI had secured 260 extraditions and removals over the preceding 20 months, marking an increase of more than 70 per cent compared with the previous 20-month period, he credited cooperation with foreign law enforcement agencies for the results. Further details about the legal process leading to his return to the US were not provided.
Bedi is expected to appear before a US court on Friday, where the legal proceedings will move forward. He has pleaded not guilty, and he remains accused rather than convicted of the alleged fraud.
