Indian-origin Chicago billionaire convicted of fraud – Jobs & Education

Chicago, June 29 (Representative) Former Outcome Health CEO Rishi Shah was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for masterminding a billion-dollar fraud that financed the lavish lifestyle 'Indian-American with private planes and yachts, media reported. U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin sentenced Shah and his co-defendants, former Outcome President Shradha Agarwal and former COO Brad Purdy, after a hearing, India West Journal reported. After his conviction, authorities planned to seize Shah's $8 million mansion on Chicago's North Side. “Shah, 38, the son of a doctor, dropped out of Northwestern University to start Outcome Health, estimated to be worth billions of dollars by Forbes, but his fortune turned out to be based on lies and corruption,” the report said. Outcome Health installed television screens and tablets in doctors' offices across the country and sold advertising space on these devices to clients, primarily pharmaceutical companies. “Evidence presented at trial revealed that Shah, Agarwal and Purdy sold advertising inventory that the company did not have and then underperformed in its advertising campaigns.

Despite the short deliveries, the company billed its customers as if it had delivered in full, according to the India West Journal report. According to media reports, they lied or caused others to lie to conceal underdeliveries from customers, creating the illusion that the company was fulfilling its contractual obligations. Purdy and others at Outcome also inflated metrics to show increased patient engagement with Outcome's tablets. The Justice Department reports that a scam from 2011 to 2017 led to at least $45 million in overcharged advertising services, it added. Three people were found guilty of defrauding Outcome's lenders and investors, leading to a significant overstatement of the company's revenue in 2015 and 2016, India West Journal said. Shah was convicted June 26 of mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering, while Agarwal awaited sentencing on mail fraud, wire fraud and bank fraud charges. Both were sentenced to several years in prison, he added. Three former Outcome employees, Ashik Desai, Kathryn Choi and Oliver Han, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud before trial, along with three other former employees.