A Texas man has been convicted in a scheme in which he defrauded hospitals by claiming to sell them products and services through a phony shell company created to impersonate information systems giant Cerner Corp.
Suresh Mitta of Richardson was found guilty in a federal jury trial on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the scheme. He faces a sentence of up to 20 years in prison without the possibility of parole.
Mitta was chief technology officer for several companies run by Albert Davis, also of Richardson. They created a fake business entity to impersonate Cerner, called Cerner LLC, through the use of fake email accounts, bogus websites, fictitious employees, and fraudulent documents. All told, there were 70 entities with more than 50 bank accounts, according to federal investigators.
The men then traded on Cerner's reputation to pitch products and services to hospitals, including a $1.3 million MRI scanner to Dallas Medical Center. The fraud included co-conspirators impersonating prominent cardiologists in Dallas who provided fake references for Dallas Medical Center to check. The medical center's parent company eventually deposited more than $1 million in bank accounts controlled by the fake company.
The fraud began to unravel when the hospital contacted Cerner Corp. to follow up on the status of the installation, only to be told that the real Cerner knew nothing about the deal, according to an article in the Kansas City Star.
Davis and other participants in the scheme even went so far as to sue South Korean MRI manufacturer Isol Technology in 2011, claiming to have business dealings with Cerner and winning a $25 million jury verdict. The verdict was later vacated when the fraud was exposed; Davis was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison in 2017 and to pay $19 million in restitution; other co-conspirators have also been sentenced.
