Two insiders at a White Plains company used their positions to steal millions of dollars, according to a federal grand jury indictment issued on Jan. 11.
Joseph Maharaj, of Goldens Bridge, and Shawn Rains, of Ridgefield, Connecticut, were indicted on conspiracy, mail fraud and money laundering charges.
Maharaj was arrested on Jan. 13 and pleaded not guilty to all charges at an arraignment before Magistrate Judge Judith C. McCarthy in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
“My client is taking these allegations very seriously,” Maharaj’s attorney, Stephen J. Riebling Jr, said in a brief telephone interview, “and he is asserting his innocence … and intends to strenuously fight these allegations throughout the process.”
Rains has not been arrested or arraigned.
From 2009 to 2017, Maharaj, Rains, “and others known and unknown,” the indictment states, “participated in a scheme to defraud a company in White Plains.”
The company is not identified, but the men’s LinkedIn profiles show that they worked for OrthoNet, a White Plains health care benefits management company.
Maharaj was director of claims operations until 2017 and Rains was a vice president, according to the profiles. Maharaj boasted that he had achieved $1 billion in savings for clients since the inception of the FCR (focused claims review) program.
According to the indictment, unnamed co-conspirators owned or controlled companies that submitted invoices for services that had not been performed or were done by employees of the White Plains company.
Then Maharaj and Rains allegedly used their positions to approve and pay the invoices, from which they and their co-conspirators “received … millions of dollars.”
Cash withdrawals, checks, blank checks, deposits and wire transfers were made to and from bank accounts controlled by Maharaj, Rains and one co-conspirator, the indictment states, “to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership and control of the proceeds of … unlawful activity.”
Maharaj posted a $250,000 appearance bond with federal court, secured by his house on Waccabuc Road in Goldens Bridge.
Connecticut business records list four limited liability corporations formed this year at Maharaj’s Westchester address: Hartford West End I, Maharaj Capital Investments, SRJM Equity Trust and SRJM Holdings.
Assistant prosecutors Stephanie Simon and James A. Ligtenberg and handling the case.
