Indian-Origin Senior Techie in $1.2M US Fraud Case

Indian-origin Karan Gupta, senior director of data analytics at Optum Inc. in Minnesota, US, was convicted of stealing over $1 million from the company. The court documents and evidence produced during the six-day trial showed that Gupta, 47, hired a lifelong friend for the position of a managerial data engineer, though he was unqualified.

The US Attorney office records showed that Gupta hired the friend in 2015 by giving him a false resume. At the office, Gupta remained his friend’s supervisor. For nearly four years, the friend did not work at all in Optum but he collected a salary of $100,000, which later increased with raises and bonuses every year. The friend sent no mails to his colleagues nor did he log into his Optum computer for weeks.

The Attorney’s office said that on Gupta’s demand, the friend paid more than half of his unearned salary to Gupta as kickbacks. He even accepted not to reveal about the kickbacks to any one else in the office.

The friend used to live in New Jersey and would withdraw the kickback payments from his bank account in cash and then deposit the same at a New Jersey branch of Gupta’s bank, which would be accessed by Gupta in  California.

After several months, the friend opened a new checking account, to receive the Optum direct deposits and sent the account’s debit card to Gupta, who then used to withdraw the fraud proceeds through ATMs in California. The deception came to light when Gupta was fired in November 2019 for a different fraud. Gupta siphoned off a total of $1.2 million from Optum through fraudulent means.

US Attorney Daniel Rosen said that Gupta was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.