New Delhi. An Indian-American businessman has been sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for masterminding a $1 billion advertising fraud scheme that defrauded high-profile investors such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Google parent Alphabet Inc and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s venture capital firm. Shah, a co-founder of Outcome Health, was found guilty in April 2023 on multiple counts of fraud and money laundering, along with his company’s co-founders Shraddha Agarwal and Brad Purdy.
Agrawal received a sentence of three years in a halfway house, while Purdy was sentenced to two years and three months in prison. The US Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a civil suit against Shah, Agrawal, Purdy and former chief development officer Ashik Desai, who pleaded guilty before the trial.
Who is Rishi Shah?
Rishi Shah is a technology investor and entrepreneur who co-founded Jumpstart Ventures in 2011, where he served as chairman and managing director, focusing on investments in healthcare technology, education technology, and media. Born into a family of doctors, Shah attended Harvard’s Summer Economics Program in 2005, before briefly attending Northwestern University and later dropping out to pursue business.
In 2006, Shah founded Outcome Health (formerly Context Media Health), which installed televisions in doctors’ offices to show health-related advertisements to patients. Under his leadership, Outcome Health grew significantly and became a major player in the technology and healthcare investment sectors by the mid-2010s. In 2016, Shah’s net worth was falsely inflated to more than $4 billion. The truth came to light in 2017 when The Wall Street Journal exposed fraudulent activities at Outcome Health. Investors, including Goldman Sachs and Alphabet, filed a lawsuit against the company, revealing that Shah and his co-founders made profits while investors suffered losses.
Tags: America News, US News
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 3, 2024, 14:34 IST
