Oakland, California – An Indian American was recently arrested on mail fraud charges stemming from an alleged embezzlement scheme, announced Acting United States Attorney Alex G. Tse and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett.
According to the indictment, Dinesh Shankar, 40, of San Jose, California, embezzled more than $2 million from his former employer, an Emeryville, California, company that develops medical devices. The indictment stated that Shankar’s position at the company involved obtaining laboratory testing and quality assurance services for the company’s medical devices.
Modus Operandi
According to court documents, Shankar allegedly used his role at the company to initiate a scheme in January 2015, in which he created six fake entities, rented post office boxes associated with each entity, and opened bank accounts under the names of the six entities. The indictment alleged that Shankar submitted false invoices to the company for payment to the purported vendors, and that after the invoices were approved the company sent checks, made out to the fake entities, to the post office boxes rented by Shankar. In total, the payments to these entities were more than $2 million, according to the indictment.
Shankar was charged with six counts of mail fraud, and if convicted, the maximum penalty for each count of mail fraud is twenty years’ imprisonment and a fine of $250,000 or the greater of twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss.
Assistant US Attorney Lloyd Farnham is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Bridget Kilkenny and Claudia Hyslop. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI.