Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

justice.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 50 posts

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#41

Post by kerblang »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #3

They installed displays in medical buildings that sold as space. Then they oversold the ad space, billing customers for ads that were never displayed from 2011 to 2017 and took investment based on the fake numbers. I wonder how the scheme unraveled. It takes a lot of people to cover up a fraud at this scale, so presumably someone noticed and reported it? I really dislike this company. I went to a doctor who had adver…

I recall seeing a tablet on a stand in an examining room at one doctor's office, and the contraption was turned to the wall and shut off, and I wondered what that was about - some sort of diagnostic doohickey? Should I turn it on and see if it will take my pulse? I managed to resist, however. The doctor ignored it.

Ooooh - Ads! Of course. Still had to sit there waiting for 20 minutes. There should be a rule that you get to start playing with equipment after waiting 15. "Ah, found the lube! Now we're cooking!"

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#42

Post by quarterdime »

neom wrote: post #18

I always like looking these folks up on youtube to see if they have any interviews, this guy did talk for Chicago Techweek, and his story starts remarkably similar to another tech dude who was recently charged with fraud... goes something like this: (when I was 12) I found some discrepancy in the price of a security, so I wrote a simple program that traded on the discrepancy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPBoIyA11…

Great videos. First video, about 22:50: "and we had a new challenge, OK? For the last three or four years our, our distribution has run sold out. So anytime we go and get a sale and we go and create inventory, we know it's going to be bought."

Meanwhile, from the DOJ release: "According to evidence presented at trial, Shah, Agarwal, and Purdy sold advertising inventory the company did not have to Outcome’s clients, then under-delivered on its advertising campaigns. Despite these under-deliveries, the company still invoiced its clients as if it had delivered in full."

Wow.

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#43

Post by mavelikara »

game_the0ry wrote: post #5

From wikipedia: > Outcome Health is a Chicago-based healthcare technology company founded by Rishi Shah. Its registered name is ContextMedia Health LLC. It is majority owned by Littlejohn & Co., a private equity firm. After its founders were indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple charges of fraud and also sued by the SEC, veteran tech investor Howard A. Tullman called Outcome "our version of Theranos." > In May…

This seems to be an adtech company specializing in a vertical (healthcare). They do not have anything to do with the caring of the health of humans. Apologies if you didn't imply that.

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#44

Post by sidewndr46 »

paulpauper wrote: post #37
sidewndr46 wrote: post #25

Any jail time for any of them? Until then it's just posturing by the Justice department.

did you read the release? How is jail not an option? >Shah was convicted of five counts of mail fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and two counts of money laundering. Agarwal was convicted of five counts of mail fraud, eight counts of wire fraud, and two counts of bank fraud. Purdy was convicted on five counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of…

"a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison "

it would appear absolutely 0 days behind bars and a solemn promise to be a good boy is an option.

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#45

Post by nikcub »

FireBeyond wrote: post #27
gnatman wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO, Rishi Shah, was a major rising star and was profiled by the Wall Street Journal in 2017. The journalist on the story thought something seemed fishy and started pulling threads, leading to an expose published in October of that year. https://www.wsj.com/articles/outcome-a-hot-tech-startup-misl...

Forbes 30 Under 30 has a similar issue... I think over the last 10-15 years, people featured in that list have been convicted or accused of scamming more money than they've made, including Elizabeth Holmes, SBF and at least a couple more.

Charlie Javice of Frank was indicted last week

https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/5/23671000/jpmorgan-frank-fr...

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#46

Post by dekhn »

rchaud wrote: post #10
gnatman wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The CEO, Rishi Shah, was a major rising star and was profiled by the Wall Street Journal in 2017. The journalist on the story thought something seemed fishy and started pulling threads, leading to an expose published in October of that year. https://www.wsj.com/articles/outcome-a-hot-tech-startup-misl...

Such is the conundrum with the WSJ. The op-ed section is beyond parody at this point (see the recent article attempting to pin SVB's collapse on 'wokeness'). But at least the journalists remain committed to digging into stories. The Theranos fraud was also discovered by a WSJ journalist who wasn't wowed by their ex-Pentagon and Beltway board members and puff pieces written about Holmes.

Maybe the real journalists from WSJ, NY Times, and the Economist could group up and make an actual news journal- with no editorials.

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#48

Post by KyeRussell »

quarterdime wrote: post #42
neom wrote: post #18

I always like looking these folks up on youtube to see if they have any interviews, this guy did talk for Chicago Techweek, and his story starts remarkably similar to another tech dude who was recently charged with fraud... goes something like this: (when I was 12) I found some discrepancy in the price of a security, so I wrote a simple program that traded on the discrepancy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPBoIyA11…

Great videos. First video, about 22:50: "and we had a new challenge, OK? For the last three or four years our, our distribution has run sold out. So anytime we go and get a sale and we go and create inventory, we know it's going to be bought." Meanwhile, from the DOJ release: "According to evidence presented at trial, Shah, Agarwal, and Purdy sold advertising inventory the company did not have to Outcome’s clients, t…

You’ve gotta sell yourself on the lie.

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#49

Post by game_the0ry »

mavelikara wrote: post #43
game_the0ry wrote: post #5

From wikipedia: > Outcome Health is a Chicago-based healthcare technology company founded by Rishi Shah. Its registered name is ContextMedia Health LLC. It is majority owned by Littlejohn & Co., a private equity firm. After its founders were indicted by a federal grand jury on multiple charges of fraud and also sued by the SEC, veteran tech investor Howard A. Tullman called Outcome "our version of Theranos." > In May…

This seems to be an adtech company specializing in a vertical (healthcare). They do not have anything to do with the caring of the health of humans. Apologies if you didn't imply that.

No need for apologies, and given the legal name of the company was ContextMedia Health LLC, I agree.

Re: Former executives of Outcome Health convicted in $1B corporate fraud scheme

#50

Post by JeremyNT »

pinkfairy10 wrote: post #20
boeingUH60 wrote: post #6

The sole aim of this company was to extract money from investors...somehow, they managed to raise $500mn, $159mn of which went to the founders for selling secondary shares [1]. I really don't understand people like this. It's far easier to build a serially unprofitable business and cash out your shares...ask Adam Neumann, Travis Kalanick, and the GoPuff founders. Just don't lie to investors, pretend you're building s…

It’s easier to commit fraud than start a unicorn tech company. How can you not understand that?

He did the "hard" part of this, which is getting investors. It didn't matter whether the business failed at that point.

If he'd just failed without the deception he could have collected his golden parachute, then gone on to keep failing at new startups for an indefinite amount of time.

Post reply on HN