UPDATE:Â Defendant Dilip Vadlamudi pleaded guilty in 2017 to conspiracy to defraud the United States. He was sentenced to three years probation and after 21 months of supervision was granted early termination of probation. Defendant Nimesh Patel pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and was sentenced in 2018 to three months imprisonment. Both men were ordered to pay $145,116 in restitution, and by 2018 they had satisfied their obligations.
“I have made a mistake,” Vadlamudi said in a July 18, 2022 email to the Westchester County Business Journal, “and I have accepted my responsibility.”
—-
An employee at the Westchester headquarters of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been charged with steering jobs to a temporary staffing company in exchange for $274,000 in kickbacks.
An indictment against Nimesh Patel, 45, of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey, and Dilip Vadlamudi, 45, of Carmel, Indiana, was unsealed Dec. 7 in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. They are accused of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering from 2012 to 2014.
Patel worked for a large, national nonprofit health care organization, unnamed in the indictment but referred throughout as the “Society” ”“ headquartered in Westchester. A spokeswoman for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in Rye Brook confirmed that Patel had worked for the nonprofit.
Vadlamudi owns a temporary staffing company in Indiana, also unidentified in the indictment that places information technology professionals. His LinkedIn page describes him as president of Pyramid Technology Solutions Inc. in Indianapolis.
Patel was authorized to hire temporary IT employees and approve the invoices. Vadlamudi”™s firm was one of three vendors the nonprofit used for hiring temporary IT workers on an as-needed basis. The organization paid Vadlamudi $2.2 million for about 36 workers.
In 2014, the nonprofit hired a law firm to investigate allegations of bribery and kickbacks in the IT department.
Patel denied ever receiving money from Vadlamudi, according to the indictment, and told the nonprofit”™s investigators that they had little contact with one another.
Actually, the government said, the men had a close personal relationship and had exchanged 790 emails in five years.
Patel allegedly set up a shell company, Dots Consulting Inc., opened a bank account and began depositing large sums from the bank account of a second company controlled by Vadlamudi.
The men exchanged emails that described their transactions, the government says, including a code that referred to the amount of kickback to be paid per employee per hour.
In October 2012, for instance, Patel messaged Vadlamudi, “I am all set up on my side. Please send me the details on your side ASAP please.”
Vadlamudi replied, “Based on the spreadsheet you sent it seems that the amt is 9219.”
Nine days later, $9,219 was deposited in the Dots bank account.
Patel allegedly used the kickbacks for a down payment on a residence, a life insurance policy and credit card bills.
The government says Patel also gave Vadlamudi inside information, for example, alerting him that a competitor had donated $3,000 to sponsor the nonprofit”™s 2013 holiday party.
“Just want to give you a head up,” Patel messaged, “so you know how to play it when it comes to you. Please treat this as very confidential.”
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The prosecution is being led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Cooper.
People like these will be strictly punished to set as an example to others.
this has to be taken seriously