New Delhi (India), 13th April 2023: A federal jury in the US found two Indian-origin executives of a Chicago-based start-up guilty of orchestrating a USD 1 billion corporate fraud conspiracy that was directed at the company’s customers, lenders, and investors.
After a 10-week trial, the jury found the co-founder and former CEO of the health technology company Outcome Health, Rishi Shah, guilty on 19 of 22 counts, the co-founder and former president, Shradha Agarwal, guilty on 15 of 17 counts, and the former COO, Brad Purdy, guilty on 13 of 15 counts.
Shah, 37, was found guilty of two counts of bank fraud, two counts of money laundering, five counts of mail fraud, and ten counts of wire fraud.
Purdy, 33, was found guilty of five charges of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of making false representations to a financial institution. Agarwal, 37, was found guilty of five counts of mail fraud, eight counts of wire fraud, and two counts of bank fraud.
The maximum sentence for each case of bank fraud against the defendants is 30 years in prison, and each count of wire fraud and mail fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.
According to evidence presented at the trial, Shah, Agarwal, and Purdy sold advertising inventory the company did not have to Outcome’s clients, then under-delivered on its advertising campaigns.
The business continued to bill its customers as though it had delivered in full notwithstanding these under-delivery instances.
Theodore Poulos, an attorney for Purdy said, “We are profoundly disappointed with the jury’s verdict in this complex and nuanced case, particularly given the plethora of evidence adduced at trial, which showed that certain critical information was intentionally withheld from Brad Purdy.”
