Manjit Singh Bedi, a 64-year-old fugitive featured on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fraudsters list, has been returned to the United States a month after he was arrested by the Punjab Police, FBI Director Kash Patel announced on Thursday.He 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 said in a post on X. He described the return as another milestone for the bureau’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.Prosecutors allege that Bedi engaged in ‘trafficking’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. According to the indictment, he swiped beneficiaries’ Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards for fraudulent food purchases, returned half the value in cash to the cardholders, and kept the rest.Bedi was indicted in April on six counts of wire fraud, to which he pleaded not guilty. Following the indictment, federal authorities said he fled to Canada before escaping to India, his home country.The US Attorney’s office said it would ask the court to keep Bedi in custody before trial, citing his demonstrated means and willingness to flee. Commenting on the case, USDA Inspector General John Walk said Bedi “stole from Americans who truly needed help,” adding that his grocery store operated like a money-laundering front.Bedi is the fifth person on the list to be caught when the FBI announced his arrest in September. Patel noted that six fugitives have been captured since the list was created about three months ago. Together, the individuals on the list are linked to more than $2 billion in alleged fraud and have spent an aggregate of almost 4,000 days on the run.Patel said the FBI has secured 260 extraditions and removals over the past 20 months, an increase of more than 70 per cent over the previous 20-month period. He credited partnerships with foreign law enforcement agencies.The announcement did not say how the extradition process was completed. The allegations against him have not been tested in court in US.