A CIO among those charged in case.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Seven Indian-Americans have been arrested and charged for, allegedly, being involved in a bribery and kickback scheme that made them more than 2.3 million dollars illegally. A total of eight individuals have been arrested in connection to the case.
Sarvesh Dharayan, Sanjay Gupta, Venkata Atluri, Rangarajan Kumar, Vadan Kumar Kopalle, Dareen Siriani, Anil Singh, and Keith Bush are the eight suspected of executing the scheme. The latter two allegedly received kickbacks and bribes from the other six, who paid them out. The money was paid to executives at a medical cost management company in order to firm up business with them.
Singh is the senior vice president and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the New York Company, a nationwide medical management company, while Bush was the company’s director of database administration.
Allegedly, the bribery scheme took place between 2008 and 2012, in which side companies were used to pay Singh and Bush for their commitment to using and approving whatever medical equipment the others wanted.
Singh was arrest months ago, and pled guilty on July 11th to honest service fraud, among other charges. Bush was arrested the following day and is expected to appear in court on August 15th. The other six were arrested soon after, each at their homes in New Jersey, and appeared in Manhattan federal court yesterday.
The six accused of bribery in the case are each charged with a count of “conspiracy to commit honest services fraud,” a charge that carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years. Each also received a count of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act, a federal criminal statute that forbids the use of US mail across state and foreign lines for illegal activities, which carries a maximum of five years in prison. Arraignment and sentencing of all the involved parties will transpire over the next several months.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com