Indian IT consultant Shivanand Maharaj in New Jersey, USA, faces a minimum of 20 years in prison for fraudulently kickbacks over US$ 2 million Invoices

New Jersey July 31, 2019
NRIpress.club/Ramesh/ A.Gary Singh

Shivanand Maharaj, 39, from India,  IT consultant in the US, was convicted on a scheme in which Maharaj owned three different companies  and submitted to the funds invoices for millions of dollars in information technology services that were never performed and paid other vendors. Shivanand Maharaj shall get a sentence of at least 25 years' imprisonment

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Philip R. Bartlett, Inspector-in-Charge of the New York Office of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (“USPIS”), announced today the filing of a criminal complaint charging ENRICO RUBANO, a/k/a “Rick Rubano,” and SHIVANAND MAHARAJ with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a false invoicing scheme that defrauded health and retirement funds (the “Funds”) of millions of dollars. As alleged, over a period of six years, RUBANO, MAHARAJ, and their co-conspirators generated hundreds of invoices for work they had not performed, which RUBANO, in his role as co-head of information technology for the Funds, approved for payment. RUBANO and MAHARAJ were arrested this morning, and will be presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrew J. Peck.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “As alleged, Enrico Rubano used his position as the co-head of IT for a health and retirement benefit fund to perpetrate a scheme to falsely invoice millions of dollars from the fund for consulting work never actually performed. Rubano allegedly had the fund make payments based on hundreds of fake invoices to Shivanand Maharaj’s company, not for IT work actually done by that company, but really in exchange for alleged kickback payments to Rubano. Money that should have gone to help pay retirement and health care benefits were instead allegedly diverted to Rubano and Maharaj.”
From 2008 through October 2015, RUBANO was the co-head of information technology for the Funds and had the authority to approve the payment of invoices from third-party vendors. Beginning in 2009, and continuing through 2015, RUBANO, MAHARAJ, and others devised a scheme in which companies they owned or controlled submitted to the Funds invoices for millions of dollars in information technology services that were never performed or that had, in fact, been performed by employees of the Funds or other vendors. RUBANO, in his position as co-head of information technology, approved these fraudulent invoices, and received kickbacks from MAHARAJ and other co-conspirators. Between 2009 and 2015, RUBANO, MAHARAJ, and their co-conspirators falsely billed and fraudulently received from the Funds at least approximately $3.4 million.

Trial has been set for May 28 for two men accused of stealing more than $3.4 million from the AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds. Rick Rubano, the benefit plan’s former co-head of information technology, was indicted nearly two years ago for receiving kickbacks from Shivanand Maharaj and other unnamed co-conspirators after approving millions of dollars in fake invoices for IT work that was never performed. The scheme allegedly went on from 2009-15, when Fund officials say they uncovered the theft and alerted authorities.
Following their arrests on January 19, 2017, the men were released on bond pending trial. Both have pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were brought by a grand jury and Rubano and Maharaj originally were charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, but a superseding indictment in October charged Rubano with four counts of wire fraud and two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, while Maharaj was charged with one count of each. Four of the new counts involve companies run by unnamed co-conspirators other than Maharaj.
According to the superseding indictment (read it here), Rubano, Maharaj “and their co-conspirators devised a scheme for Rubano to accept kickbacks from Maharaj and others” for referral of IT work “that was never performed” by companies identified as Maharaj Ltd., Sytrex LLC, and Z Tech Solutions. Rubano then allegedly submitted false invoices, which were paid by the Funds. Rubano and other unnamed co-conspirators, without Maharaj’s involvement, allegedly were involved in a similar scheme in which Rubano is also accused of accepting kickbacks for IT work that was never performed by two other companies identified as CVJ Consulting and GE Tech Consultants.
The case is almost identical to that of Nader Karimi, the former chief technology officer at the SAG Pension and Health Plans, who was involved in a similar fake invoice kick-back scheme that defrauded the SAG Plans out of more than $2.5 million. In a plea agreement in 2016, Karimi was sentenced to five years’ probation for filing a false income tax return in which he failed to report more than $700,000 in kickbacks he received from contractors he hired to upgrade the Plans’ computer system.
He will be sentenced in December, said United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman.