California man pleads guilty to illegally collecting more than $5 million from loan holders

Federal prosecutors say a California man has pleaded guilty to mail and wire fraud involving more than $5 million his company collected from consumers with pending loans by impersonating law enforcement in threatening phone calls.

The U.S. attorney's office says Kirit D. Patel, of Tracy, pleaded guilty Tuesday.

It says the 71-year-old man was the owner and president of Broadway Global Master, which pretended to be a debt collection company.

The office says that from 2010 to 2012, Patel's workers operating outside the United States called consumers with online payday loans and threatened to arrest them if they didn't immediately pay their debts, which the callers claimed were delinquent.

Federal prosecutors say Patel's company collected more than $5 million in payments and immediately transferred the funds out of the country.