Indian-origin man Karan Gupta has been found guilty of several charges, including fraud and money laundering conspiracy, for hiring an unqualified friend for a job in which the friend did no work and gave Gupta half of his unearned salary as kickbacks. Gupta’s fraud totalled over $1.2 million (approx Rs 10.91 crore).
An X post from the FBI Minneapolis reads that the 47 year old Karan Gupta, a senior director at Optum, a subsidiary of United Health Group, was found guilty after a six-day trial on multiple counts, including fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Gupta hired an unqualified friend for a position where the friend did not do any work and paid half his unearned salary in kickbacks to Gupta, whose fraud totaled more than $1.2 million.
Karan Gupta, age 47, a Senior Director at Optum, a subsidiary of United Health Group, was found guilty after a six day trial on multiple counts, including fraud and money laundering conspiracy, for hiring an unqualified friend for a position where the friend did no work and paid… pic.twitter.com/cgIWXGXvhK
— FBI Minneapolis (@FBIMinneapolis) February 18, 2026
Richard Evanchec of the FBI’s Minneapolis Office said, Mr 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. He did this so that he could collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks over many years. The FBI is committed to holding those in positions of power accountable, particularly when the cost of their actions is ultimately passed along to hard-working Americans.
According to a press release by the US Attorney’s Office, District of Minnesota, Gupta recruited a lifelong friend to a managerial data engineering position at Optum in 2015. The friend was unqualified for the post. Gupta even gave the friend a false resume which the friend used to secure the position. Gupta became his friend’s supervisor.
For nearly four years that followed, Gupta’s friend did no work for Optum at all. However, he collected a salary that began above $100,000 and increased annually with raises and bonuses. The friend met no one else at Optum, hardly ever wrote emails and would go weeks without even logging into his work computer, the release added.
At Gupta’s demand, the friend paid him kickbacks totalling more than half of his unpaid Optum salary. Gupta and the friend also decided on a plan to conceal the kickback payments. Initially, the friend who lived in New Jersey would withdraw the kickback payments in cash from his bank account using the fraud proceeds. He would then deposit the cash in a New Jersey branch of Gupta’s bank so that Gupta could access the funds in California. The friend then opened a new checking account, designated it to receive Optum direct deposits and provided Gupta the debit card which Gupta used to withdraw the fraud proceeds in cash from ATMs in California, the statement said.
The incident came to light when Gupta was terminated by Optum in 2019 in connection with another fraud case. Optum later referred the case to federal agencies.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: ZEE News
