Vice President Of International Cargo Airline Sentenced To 32 Months In Prison For Defrauding Employer

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that ABILASH KURIEN was sentenced to 32 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman in connection with a massive scheme to defraud Polar Air Cargo Worldwide, Inc. ("Polar"), a leading cargo airline, of more than $32 million dollars in revenue. KURIEN previously pled guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: "Abilash Kurien betrayed his employer's trust. Over the course of more than a decade, Kurien took millions of dollars in kickbacks for himself and caused tens of millions in dollars in losses to the company he worked for. This Office and our law enforcement partners will not stop in rooting out corporate fraud."

According to the charging documents and other filings and statements made in court:

From at least in or about 2009 through in or about July 2021, KURIEN and at least nine other individuals participated in a massive scheme to defraud Polar. At all relevant times, KURIEN and three codefendants were senior executives of Polar (the "Executive Defendants"), and six codefendants (the "Vendor Defendants") owned and operated various Polar vendors and customers.

The Executive Defendants agreed to accept millions of dollars in kickbacks from the Vendor Defendants, and also reaped substantial financial benefits as a result of their secret ownership interests in certain Polar vendors, in exchange for ensuring that those vendors received favorable business arrangements with Polar. The fraud they perpetrated-which involved a substantial portion of Polar's senior management and at least 10 customers and vendors of Polar-led to pervasive corruption of Polar's business, touching nearly every aspect of the company's operations, for over a decade.

As a result of the scheme, the Executive Defendants, along with two co-conspirators who also worked as senior executives at Polar, received unlawful payments, either directly or through various limited liability companies they controlled, in excess of approximately $23 million in kickback payments or disbursements as a result of their ownership of conflicted companies.

KURIEN was Polar's Vice President of Marketing, Revenue Management, and Network Planning. He personally received kickbacks totaling over $7 million.

Nine of the defendants charged in this case have pleaded guilty. Skye Xu, the remaining defendant, is scheduled for trial on October 28, 2024.

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In addition to the prison term, KURIEN, 46, of Wilton, Connecticut, was sentenced to 3years of supervised release. KURIEN was also ordered to forfeit $7,192,064.41 and to make restitution to Polar in the amount of $22,956,341.

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office's Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Danielle Kudla, Kevin Mead, Qais Ghafary, and Jerry J. Fang are in charge of the prosecution.

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