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Ex-healthcare CEO sentenced in $212M fraud scheme
Federal prosecutors said the conspiracy inflated the company’s value and misled investors during a take-private transaction.
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Malvika Choudhary - Thu, 14, May 2026
- 17:59 EDT
- 22
Representative image of scam / Pexels
An Indian American former healthcare executive was sentenced to five years in federal prison for his role in a $212 million investment fraud scheme tied to the company’s securities transactions.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, Parmjit Parmar, former chief executive officer of a publicly traded healthcare services company, also known as “Paul Parmar,” was sentenced on May 5 by U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo in Newark federal court after pleading guilty to a conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
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Parmar, 55, of Colts Neck, New Jersey, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $125 million in restitution.
Federal prosecutors said Parmar and his co-conspirators, including Sotirios Zaharis, also known as “Sam Zaharis,” and Ravi Chivukula, orchestrated the scheme between May 2015 and September 2017 to defraud a private investment firm and other investors during a transaction to take a healthcare services company private from the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market.
Authorities said the private investment firm contributed approximately $82.5 million toward the transaction, while a consortium of financial institutions provided another $130 million, bringing the total financing to about $212.5 million.
Prosecutors alleged the conspirators used fraudulent methods to inflate the company’s value and falsely portray it as being worth substantially more than its actual value. They said Parmar and others sought to raise tens of millions of dollars through public offerings purportedly intended to fund acquisitions of operating subsidiaries.
In reality, prosecutors said, several of those entities either did not exist or generated only a fraction of the income claimed by the company. Funds from the offerings were allegedly routed through bank accounts controlled by the conspirators and used for unrelated purposes.
Court documents stated the conspirators created fake customers and altered bank records to make it appear the diverted funds were legitimate customer revenue. Prosecutors also said Parmar and others fabricated subsidiary bank records and made material misrepresentations and omissions to investors and financing firms.
Authorities said the scheme caused victims to value the company at more than $300 million as part of the financing process for the take-private deal.
The scheme unraveled in September 2017 when Parmar and his co-conspirators either resigned or were terminated from the company. In March 2018, the company and several affiliated entities filed for bankruptcy, attributing much of the financial collapse to the fraud.
U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer credited the Federal Bureau of Investigation, led by Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy, and the FBI Headquarters Forensic Accountant Support Team for their work on the investigation.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys George M. Barchini and Kelly M. Lyons, with assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorney Olta Bejleri, Economic Crimes Unit Chief Carolyn Silane, and Bank Integrity, Money Laundering, and Recovery Unit Chief Peter A. Laserna.
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