Man found guilty of defrauding employer by hiring friend as fake worker

A man was found guilty by a federal jury on Wednesday of defrauding his employer by hiring a friend as a fake worker in order to pocket the paycheck.

The Justice Department said in a release Wednesday that Karan Gupta, 47, who formerly worked as a senior director of data analytics at health services company Optum, recruited and hired a friend to take a position, even providing the man a false resume. Once hired, the friend sent Gupta part of his paycheck as a kickback.

The Justice Department did not publicly identify the friend, who was working as a manager for data engineering at Optum.

Despite holding the position, the friend did not meet anyone else who worked for Optum, answered few, if any, emails and went weeks without logging onto his work computer. At first, Gupta’s friend withdrew the kickback payment in cash before depositing it at a New Jersey branch of Gupta’s bank, letting Gupta withdraw the money for use in California.

Eventually, the friend designated a checking account to receive direct deposits of his Optum paychecks before sending Gupta the debit card, allowing Gupta to use the funds, federal prosecutors said.

Gupta was found guilty in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota of 10 counts of wire fraud and one count each of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. The Justice Department did not say when Gupta will be sentenced.

Optum, a subsidiary of Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group, uncovered Gupta’s kickback scheme after firing him in 2019 for a separate and unrelated case of fraud, and subsequently alerted law enforcement.

In total, Gupta defrauded Optum of $1.2 million, federal prosecutors said.

“Gupta abused his position of trust as the Senior Director of a subsidiary of the largest healthcare provider in the United States to defraud his company by hiring a ghost employee for a fictitious position,” said Rick Evanchec, acting special agent in charge of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office.