Minneapolis: An Indian-origin man has been found guilty of a unique fraud in the US, involving more than USD 1.2 million.
Karan Gupta (47), worked at a top position in a subsidiary of the largest health provider in the US. By taking advantage of his position, Gupta hired an unqualified friend for a position. The friend did no work and paid half his unearned salary in kickbacks to Gupta.
The matter was investigated by the FBI and Gupta was found guilty after a six-day trial on multiple counts, including fraud and money laundering conspiracy, as reported by ANI.
“Those who manufacture fraudulent schemes to appropriate money from legitimate businesses must be held accountable for their criminal conduct,” US attorney Rosen said.
“Kickback schemes and no-show jobs undermine legitimate businesses, and the perpetrators must suffer the consequences of their actions,” he added.
“Mr Gupta abused his position of trust as the senior director of a subsidiary of the largest healthcare provider in the United States to defraud his company by hiring a ghost employee for a fictitious position, so that he could collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbac
ks over many years,” Rick Evanchec, the acting Special Agent, in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis Field Office, said.
“The FBI is committed to holding those in positions of power accountable, particularly when the cost of their actions are ultimately passed along to hard working Americans,” he added.
Gupta has been accused of recruiting and approving the hiring of a lifelong friend to work at Optum in 2015, in a managerial data engineering position for which the friend was unqualified. He gave the friend a false resume, which the latter used to secure the position. Gupta then became his friend’s supervisor. For almost four years, the friend did no work at all for Optum, all the while collecting a salary that began above $100,000 and increased with raises and bonuses each year. The friend met no one else at Optum, sent almost no emails, and regularly did not log into his Optum computer for weeks on end.
At Gupta’s demand, his friend paid more than half of his unearned Optum salary in kickbacks. The duo also agreed on a plan to conceal the kickback payments.
Initially, the friend, who lived in New Jersey, would withdraw the kickback payments from his bank account in cash, using the fraud proceeds, then deposit the cash in a New Jersey branch for Gupta’s bank, so that Gupta could access the funds in California. Later, the friend opened a new checking account, designated that checking account to receive the Optum direct deposits, and sent Gupta the debit card, which Gupta then used to withdraw the fraud proceeds in cash from ATMs in California.