‘$100,000 salary, no logins’: Indian-origin executive convicted in $1.2 million fraud in US company

‘Collected a salary that began above $100,000; sent no emails,' - an Indian-origin executive in the US has been found guilty in a years-long fraud that cost a US-based company approximately $1.2 million by hiring his “lifelong friend” using a false resume, the US Attorney's Office, District of Minnesota, said in a release posted on Wednesday.

The accused – Karan Gupta – aged 47, worked as a Senior Director at Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.

He was found guilty after a six-day trial on multiple counts, including fraud and money laundering conspiracy, for hiring an unqualified friend for a position in which the friend did no work and paid half his unearned salary in kickbacks to Gupta, whose fraud totalled more than $1.2 million, as per the FBI in Minneapolis.

Who is Karan Gupta?

Karan Gupta was a senior director of data analytics at Optum, Inc., a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group headquartered in Minnesota.

Gupta's deeds involving the hiring of a ‘lifelong friend’ and 'kickbacks' came to light after the 47-year-old was terminated in November 2019 for a separate fraud by Gupta that Optum discovered.

Optum investigated the case and referred it to federal law enforcement. Gupta’s fraud against Optum totalled more than $1.2 million, as per a press release by the US Attorney's Office.

How Gupta carried out the fraud?

In 2015, Gupta recruited and approved the hiring of a lifelong friend to a managerial data engineering position at Optum, for which the friend was unqualified.

He even gave the friend a false resume, which the friend used to secure the position. Gupta became his friend’s supervisor.

For nearly four years that followed, Gupta's friend did no work at all for Optum – all of it 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 would go weeks without even logging into his work computer.

At Gupta’s demand, his friend paid Gupta more than half of his unearned Optum salary in kickbacks. Gupta and the friend also agreed on a plan to conceal the kickback payments.

Initially, the friend, who lived in New Jersey, would withdraw the kickback payments in cash from his bank account, using the fraud proceeds, then deposit the cash in a New Jersey branch of Gupta’s bank so that Gupta could access the funds in California. Later, the friend opened a new checking account, designated it to receive Optum direct deposits, and sent Gupta the debit card, which Gupta then used to withdraw the fraud proceeds in cash from ATMs in California, as mentioned in the statement.