A former senior director at Optum has been sentenced to 36 months in prison for creating a no-show job for a friend and pocketing more than $950,000 in kickbacks from the fraudulent salary over three years, the Justice Department said in an Aug. 25 news release.
Karan Gupta, 48, of Walnut Creek, Calif., hired his friend Shangraf Kaul as a data engineering manager at Optum in 2015 despite Mr. Kaul’s lack of qualifications, then demanded approximately 60% of Mr. Kaul’s six-figure salary as kickbacks while Mr. Kaul performed no work.
The scheme was discovered after Mr. Gupta was terminated from Optum in November 2019 for engaging in a similar fraud. Mr. Gupta was convicted at trial in February 2026. Mr. Kaul pleaded guilty in February 2025 and is awaiting sentencing.
Becker’s has reached out to Optum and will update this story if more information becomes available.
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