IRS Criminal Investigation

07/16/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/16/2024 19:59

Minnesota executives sentenced to prison for orchestrating multimillion dollar fraud schemes

Date: July 16, 2024

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MINNEAPOLIS - Two medical services company executives have been sentenced to prison and ordered to pay restitution to their victims for orchestrating a massive fraud scheme, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

According to court documents, Khemwattie Singh was the chief executive officer of Global Medical Services, LLC, and Minnesota International Medicine. Neeraj Chepuri was the chief medical officer of Global Medical Services. Global Medical Services was a Minnesota-based company that purported to provide accessible healthcare solutions and services worldwide. Minnesota International Medicine was an assumed name for a Minnesota-based medical concierge company that was acquired by Global Medical Services in June 2018.

Between June and October 2018, Singh, Chepuri, and others devised a fraud scheme by entering into factoring contracts with a Florida-based investment company to purchase the accounts receivable of Global Medical Services and Minnesota International Medicine for more than $2.6 million. Factoring is a form of short-term financing in which a business sells its accounts receivable to a third-party at a discount.

According to court documents, Singh and Chepuri defrauded the investment company by failing to pay over the receivables as they were collected and falsely represented that no funds had been received. Instead, Singh and Chepuri pocketed the money and wired more than $5 million overseas.

In addition, Singh was responsible for complying with all federal tax laws pertaining to Global Medical Services, LLC, and Minnesota International Medicine as the chief executive officer, including the requirement that the business would withhold federal income taxes and Social Security and Medicare ("FICA") taxes from employees' pay and report and pay over the withheld amounts to the Internal Revenue Service. Beginning in approximately 2018, Singh willfully failed to file quarterly payroll tax returns or pay over the withheld amounts and the employer's contribution to FICA.

On Dec. 29, 2023, Singh pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of willful failure to account for and pay over payroll taxes for withholding federal taxes from employee payroll. She was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court by Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz to 27 months for the factoring fraud scheme and 12 months for the tax fraud, to be served concurrently. She was also ordered to pay $3,957,364.62 in restitution to her victims.

Chepuri pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on Dec. 29, 2023. He was sentenced today by Chief Judge Schiltz to 21 months in prison, one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay full restitution in the amount of $3,265,363.14.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS CI), the FBI, and the Minnesota Commerce Fraud Bureau.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Chelsea A. Walcker and Robert M. Lewis prosecuted the case.

CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a more than a 90 percent federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 12 attaché posts abroad.