The former leaders of Outcome Health were greedy fraudsters, the government alleged during opening arguments in their criminal trial Monday morning, while defense attorneys described them as earnest executives who were deceived by their underlings.
The three defendants — former Outcome Health CEO Rishi Shah, president Shradha Agarwal and executive Brad Purdy — are on trial in Chicago, charged with bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud.
The federal government alleges the trio participated in a $1 billion fraud scheme. Outcome placed screens and tablets in doctors’ offices and waiting rooms that ran educational content and pharmaceutical ads. But federal prosecutors allege that the three lied about how many doctors’ offices had screens and tablets running their content. The government alleges that they then used those exaggerated numbers to overcharge drug companies for advertising and inflate revenue figures used to get loans and raise money from investors.
