A former senior director of data analytics at Optum was found guilty of defrauding the company out of more than $1.2 million through a scheme involving a fraudulent hire and salary kickbacks.
What happened?
- Karan Gupta was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, and one count of money laundering conspiracy following a six-day jury trial, according to a Feb. 18 Justice Department news release.
- In 2025, Mr. Gupta was found to have recruited and approved the hiring of a lifelong friend to work at Optum in a managerial data engineering position for which he was unqualified. Mr. Gupta gave the friend a false resume that was used to secure the role, and became his supervisor.
- For almost four years, the friend did “no work at all for Optum,” according to the Department of Justice, while collecting a salary that started at $100,000 and increased with raises and bonuses each year, according to the release. The court found the friend did not meet anyone else at Optum, sent “almost no emails” and regularly did not log into his Optum computer for weeks on end.
- At Mr. Gupta’s demand, the friend paid more than half of his Optum salary in kickbacks.
- The fraud scheme was discovered in November 2019 after Mr. Gupta was fired for a separate fraud scheme that Optum had discovered. Mr. Gupta’s fraud schemes against Optum totaled more than $1.2 million.
What’s next?
- Mr. Gupta’s case was tried before a jury in a federal court in Minnesota, home to Optum’s parent company, UnitedHealth Group. A sentencing date does not yet appear in court records.
