An Indian-American entrepreneur has bee sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison for running a billion-dollar fraud in advertisements. This plan targeted prominent investors such as Goldman Shah Group Inc., Google parent company Alphabet Inc., and Venture Capital firm of Illinois Governor JB Pritzker.
Co-founder of Outcome Health, Shah was find guilty of several counts including fraud and money laundering in April 2023 with the other co-founders of his organization named Shradha Agarwal and Brad Purdy. Agarwal got a three-year sentence for her half-way house while Purdy received two years and three months behind bars.
US Securities and Exchange Commission also filed a civil lawsuit against Shah, Agarwal, Purdy, and former chief growth officer Ashik Desai, who pleaded guilty prior to trial.
Who is Rishi Shah?
Rishi Shah is an investor in technology and an entrepreneur who co-founded JumpStart Ventures in 2011 serving as its Chairman & Managing Director where he focused on health technology, education technology and media investments.
Shah comes from a family of doctors; he attended Harvard’s summer economics program in 2005 before briefly studying at Northwestern University from which he dropped out to pursue entrepreneurship.
In 2006, Outcome Health (formerly Context Media Health) was found by Shah. This company installed TVs displaying health-related commercials to patients within doctors’ offices. Under his guidance, Outcome Health grew dramatically becoming one of the most important tech start-ups in America’s healthcare investment sector by the mid-2010s.
The 38 year-old sits on the boards of Young Presidents Organization (YPO), MATTER as well as 1871; an association comprised of healthcare innovators besides being an idea incubator. He also advises non-profits, universities, technology startup accelerators/incubators etc.
According to reports by Forbes Magazine his net worth jumped from about $4 billion in December 2016. The truth about Outcome Health emerged in 2017 when the Wall Street Journal exposed its fraudulent activities. Goldman Sachs, Alphabet and other investors filed lawsuits against the company uncovering that Shah and his partners had enriched themselves while investors lost money.
