Working as a Doordash delivery driver is not an obvious path to wealth. But a Southern California man and his accomplice designed a delicate ruse - involving a series of fake orders and manipulation of company software that won them millions, prosecutors said.

A Newport Beach man pleaded guilty Tuesday to murder $2.5 million from a San Francisco-based food delivery company, officials from the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.

Sayee Chaitanya Reddy Devagiri, 30, admitted he has worked with several other programs to make Doordash pay for delivery that never happened.

Devagiri faces a maximum statutory fine of 20 years in prison, with a fine of $250,000. He plans to appear in court on September 16 for trial.

Prosecutors said Devagiri was a Doordash driver, and three other workers worked together from November 2020 to February 2021 and conspired with a former employee of the company to access its computer systems.

The crew created fake customer and driver accounts. First, they will charge high-priced orders to the customer account, and then - using credentials from employees they work with - they will manually reassign orders to the driver account they control.

Fake driver accounts will report the status of virtual orders delivered, resulting in payments through these driver accounts.

They will then further manipulate Doordash's software to remove the status of the fake order from "delivery" to "in progress".

From there, they reassign the order to another driver account they control. This triggers multiple payments from individuals and does not exist. Officials say the process usually takes less than five minutes and is repeated hundreds of times in many orders.

Devagiri is charged with Manaswi Mandadapu, 29, Matheus Duarte, 29, and Hari Vamsi Anne, 30.

Tyler Thomas Bottenhorn, the former scam employee, admitted to conspiracy to commit wire fraud in November 2023 and admitted to being involved in the program.

It is unclear how the defendants know each other or how they connect with Bottenhorn.

Times worker Clara Harter contributed to the report.