It seems there must be something in the water with all of these young entrepreneurs getting caught and convicted on fraudulent charges. Up next on the plate are three former leaders of a Chicago-based company, Outcome Health.
After a 10-week trial that tracked the rise and fall of the company, jurors found former CEO Rishi Shah guilty on 19 of 22 counts, co-founder and former President Shradha Agarwal guilty on 15 of 17 counts, and former Chief Operation Officer Brad Purdy guilty on 13 of 15 counts.
The Indian American executives were accused and later found guilty of lying to customers and investors while harboring roughly $1 billion.
The team, led by Shah, who was close to Gov. J.B. Pritzker and a rising star in Democratic circles before the fraud was revealed in a Wall Street Journal article in 2017.
Outcome Health focused its business on pharmaceutical companies, selling television and tablet ads provided at doctors’ offices and waiting rooms. According to evidence presented at trial, Shah, Agarwal and Purdy sold advertising inventory the company did not have to Outcome’s clients, then under-delivered on its advertising campaigns.
Despite these under-deliveries, the company still invoiced its clients as if it had delivered in full. The trio lied or caused others to lie to conceal the under-deliveries from clients and make it appear as if the company was delivering advertising content to the number of screens in the clients’ contracts.
Although Shah, Agarwal and Purdy have yet to be sentenced, each bank fraud charge carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison, while wire and mail fraud counts carry up to 20 years in prison. Money laundering carries a maximum of 10 years, and the false-statements charge can be up to 30 years.
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