United States of America v. Parmjit Parmar, a/k/a “Paul Parmar”

Newark, New Jersey, criminal defense lawyers represented the Defendant charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and wire fraud.

By Kent Morlan

Parmjit Parmar, a/k/a “Paul Parmar,” 55, of Colts Neck, New Jersey and his his conspirators, including Sotirios Zaharis, a/k/a “Sam Zaharis,” and Ravi Chivukula orchestrated an elaborate scheme to defraud a private investment firm and others out of hundreds of millions of dollars in connection with the funding of a transaction to take private a healthcare services company traded publicly on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market. To fund the transaction, the private investment firm put up approximately $82.5 million and a consortium of financial institutions put up another $130 million, for a total of approximately $212.5 million. The coconspirators utilized fraudulent methods to grossly inflate the value of the company and tricked others into believing that it was worth substantially more than its actual value.

Parmar and the conspirators sought to raise tens of millions of dollars in the public markets, purportedly to fund the company’s acquisitions of various operating subsidiaries. In reality, a number of those entities either did not exist or had only a fraction of the operating income attributed to them. The conspirators funneled the proceeds of these secondary offerings through bank accounts they controlled and used the money for a variety of purposes that had nothing to do with acquiring the purported targets. The conspirators went to great lengths to make it appear that these funds were revenue, concocting phony customers and altering bank statements to make it appear as if the funds were coming from customers.

To perpetuate the scheme, Parmar and his conspirators also falsified and fabricated bank records of subsidiary entities in order to generate a phony picture of Comrevenue streams and made material misrepresentations and omissions to the private investment firm and others.

Parmar and his conspirators’ actions caused victims to value the company at more than $300 million for purposes of financing the transaction to take the company private. The scheme was uncovered in September 2017, when Parmar and his conspirators resigned from their positions with the company or were terminated. On March 16, 2018, the company and numerous of its affiliated entities filed for bankruptcy, attributing the company’s financial demise, in large part, to the fraud scheme.

U.S. Attorney Robert Frazer credited special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Stefanie Roddy, with assistance from FBI Headquarters Forensic Accountant Support Team.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys George M. Barchini of the Bank Integrity, Money Laundering, and Recovery Unit and Kelly M. Lyons of the Economic Crimes Unit, with assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorneys Olta Bejleri of the Economic Crimes Unit, Carolyn Silane, Chief of the Economic Crimes Unit, and Peter A. Laserna, Chief of the Bank Integrity, Money Laundering, and Recovery Unit in Newark.

Sentence: 60 months Imprisonment; Supervised Release: 3 years with Special Conditions: ALCOHOL/DRUG TESTING AND TREATMENT, FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE, MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT, NEW DEBT RESTRICTIONS, SELF-EMPLOYMENT/BUSINESS DISCLOSURE; Fine: Waived; Special Assessment: $100.00 (due immediately); Restitution: $125,049,681.76 (interest waived)(due immediately)