Defendant Sentenced in $1.8 Million Scheme

On February 20, 2013, in Oakland, California., Asim Waqar, a former employee of Kaiser Permanente, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,803,667 in restitution to Kaiser and $142,530 to the United States Treasury. Waqar pleaded guilty to the conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax evasion. According to court documents, Waqar was employed by Kaiser in 2005 as a manager.  Waqar, co-defendant Farid Rahman, and his wife, co-defendant Mina Kuhl, living in the Detroit, Michigan area, joined Waqar in a scheme to defraud Kaiser by encouraging Kaiser to hire Kuhl who would purportedly work from Michigan under Waqar’s supervision. In fact, once Kuhl was hired by Kaiser, Waqar would arrange for Kuhl to be paid without having to perform any work. Between 2005 and 2008, Waqar had authorized payment of $1,803,667 to third party vendors for the employment of Kuhl.  From the money paid to Kuhl, Kuhl and Rahman kicked back $428,300 to Waqar, who failed to pay federal taxes in the amount of $142,300 due on this income. Rahman was sentenced to 18 months in prison and Kuhl was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison.

Source: IRS.gov