Indian-American CEO Held Guilty Of Paying Kickbacks

An Indian-American CEO of two publicly traded companies has been held guilty of paying kickbacks for purchases of his companies’ stock.

Shailesh Shah, 48, pleaded guilty before the US District Judge Richard Stearns to two instances of mail fraud and two counts of wire fraud.
He will be sentenced in October and could face a sentence of up to 20 years and a fine of $250,000.

The kickbacks were concealed through sham consulting agreements and other fake documents. Shah was not aware that the purported investment fund representative was an undercover FBI agent.

The plea follows a lengthy investigation focusing on preventing fraud in the micro-cap stock markets. Micro-cap companies are small publicly-traded companies whose stock often trades at pennies per share.