New Jersey healthcare CEO cooked books in $212M scam that bankrupted company

💰 New Jersey healthcare CEO sentenced to 5 years for a $212M securities fraud conspiracy.

🚨 Federal prosecutors say fake bank records and phony customers helped inflate the company’s value past $300 million.

👀 Two accused co-conspirators remain fugitives years after the massive healthcare fraud case exploded.

A Monmouth County man has been sentenced to five years in prison for a massive conspiracy that he pulled off as the CEO of a publicly traded healthcare company.

Parmjit "Paul" Parmar, 55, of Colts Neck, was sentenced to five years in prison in federal court in Newark on Tuesday. The disgraced CEO has also been ordered to pay $125 million in restitution to the victims of his fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey.

Parmar pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit securities fraud. However, the case isn't completely wrapped up; two of his accused conspirators in the healthcare industry are on the lam.

Healthcare fraud case still has two fugitives

In May 2018, Parmar, Chief Financial Officer Sotirios "Sam" Zaharis, and company secretary Ravi Chivukula were charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, securities fraud, and wire fraud, according to federal prosecutors. Zaharis and Chivukula have been considered fugitives ever since.

Their $212 million plot bankrupted Constellation Healthcare Technologies, Inc., a Houston-based company. In September 2017, Parmar and his conspirators lost their jobs. The healthcare company was later sold.

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Fake customers fueled massive investor scam

Investigators uncovered that the fraud scheme started in May 2015. The company was publicly traded, and its executives wanted to take it private. Parmar and the other executives fabricated countless bank records to create phony customers and misrepresent their revenues.

The plan was to defraud investors, and it worked to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, according to prosecutors. One private equity firm put up $82.5 million, while other financial groups invested another $130 million.

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The healthcare company executives "grossly" inflated the company's value, prosecutors said. When it was time to take the company private, Constellation was valued at over $300 million. It went belly-up in March 2018, and Parmar was charged two months later.

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