‘He drew a salary that started above $100,000; sent no emails,” the U.S. Attorney, District of Minnesota, said in a report Wednesday, one of the Indian-origin U.S. executives who was found guilty of a years-long fraud that cost a U.S.-based company approximately $1.2 million by hiring his “lifelong friend” using a fake resume.
The defendant – Karan Gupta – aged 47, worked as a senior executive 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, of hiring an unqualified friend for a position the friend did not work in and paying half his undeserved salary in kickbacks to Gupta, whose fraud totaled $1.2 million, according to the FBI in Minneapolis.
Who is Karan Gupta?
Karan Gupta was senior director of data analytics at Optum, Inc., a Minnesota-based subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group.
Gupta’s exploits, which included hiring a “lifelong friend” and “kickbacks,” came to light after the 47-year-old was terminated in November 2019 for a separate Gupta scam uncovered by Optum.
Optum investigated the case and referred it to federal law enforcement. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Gupta’s fraud against Optum totaled more than $1.2 million.
How did Gupta pull off the scam?
In 2015, Gupta recruited and approved the hiring of a lifelong friend for a data engineering management position at Optum for which the friend was not qualified.
He even gave a friend a fake resume, which the friend used to secure the position. Gupta became his friend’s manager.
For nearly four years that followed, Gupta’s friend didn’t work for Optum at all — all while collecting a salary that started above $100,000 and increased each year with raises and bonuses. The friend never met anyone else at Optum, sent almost no email, and went weeks without logging into his work computer.
At Gupta’s request, his friend paid Gupta more than half of his unearned Optum salary in commissions. Gupta and a friend also agreed on a plan to conceal kickbacks.
Initially, the friend, who lived in New Jersey, took cash kickbacks from his bank account using the proceeds of the fraud and then deposited the money 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 a debit card, which Gupta then used to withdraw money from the cash fraud at ATMs in California, according to the statement.