Fraudulent conduct by Shray Goel and Shaunik Raheja
On January 4, 2024, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced indictments of two individuals–Shray Goel and Shaunik Raheja–in connection with a fraudulent scam that the two operated on Airbnb and Vrbo.
As alleged by the USAO, the scheme operated in 2018 and 2019 at properties in:
- Los Angeles, CA
- Malibu, CA
- Marina Del Rey, CA
- Denver, CO
- Chicago, IL
- Davenport, FL
- Savannah, GA
- Bloomington, IN
- South Bend, IN
- Cleveland, OH
- Nashville, TN
- Austin, TX
- Dallas, TX
- Milwaukee, WI
According to the indictments, Shray Goel and Shaunik Raheja allegedly double-booked properties using multiple listings of the same property on Airbnb and Vrbo, then invented last-minute excuses to cancel overbooked guests and move them to replacement accommodations.
If you believe your Airbnb reservation from 2018 or 2019 was affected by this scheme, please send an email to indictment.2023cdc@airbnb.com with your name, the email address associated with your Airbnb account, the date of the reservation you believe was affected, the location of that reservation, and the confirmation number of the reservation.