An Indian-origin man living in the US was convicted of stealing over $1 million from the company that is investigating multiple programs suspected of fraud in Minnesota.
According to court documents and evidence introduced at trial, Karan Gupta, who was a senior director of data analytics at Optum, Inc., hired a lifelong friend for a managerial data engineering position for which the friend was unqualified.
“Gupta gave the friend a false resume, which the friend used to secure the position. Gupta became his friend’s supervisor. Then, for almost four years, the friend did no work at all for Optum, all 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,” a press release by the US Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota, said.
“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 from his bank account in cash using the fraud proceeds, then deposit the cash at a New Jersey branch of Gupta’s bank so that Gupta could access the funds in California,” it added.
Later, the friend opened a new checking account, designated that 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.
According to the release, the fraud scheme was discovered after Gupta was terminated in November 2019 for a separate fraud that Optum uncovered. Optum investigated and referred the case to federal law enforcement. Gupta’s frauds against Optum totaled more than $1.2 million.
The state of Minnesota is paying Optum over $2 million this year to review claims for 14 programs that the Minnesota Department of Human Services has deemed most susceptible to fraud, or “high-risk.”
