Who is Tonmoy Sharma? CEO arrested in Rs 12440000000 crore fraud case in...
Indian-origin businessman Tonmoy Sharma has been arrested at Los Angeles International Airport for his role in a massive healthcare fraud case in the U.S., worth around Rs. 1,244 crore (USD 149 million). Sharma, 61, is the founder and former CEO of Sovereign Health Group, a now-closed organization that offered addiction recovery and mental health services.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Sharma cheated health insurance companies by making fake claims totaling USD 149 million. He also paid about USD 21 million (roughly Rs. 175 crore) in illegal kickbacks to recruit patients for his centers.
A federal grand jury has charged him with eight serious offenses including four counts of wire fraud, one conspiracy charge, and three counts related to illegal referrals.
As per US Attorney's Office, Central District of California, Sovereign Health Group fraudulently enrolled patients into insurance plans without their knowledge, using deceptive tactics.
The FBI began investigating the case in 2017. As part of the probe, they searched Sovereign Health's treatment centers in Southern California, its main office, and Sharma's home. The company shut down its operations in 2018.
Another person involved in the case, Paul Jin Sen, has also been arrested. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled to begin on July 29. Who is Tonmoy Sharma?
Tonmoy Sharma is originally from Guwahati, Assam. He studied medicine at Dibrugarh Medical College in 1987 and completed his internship at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi. After that, he moved to the UK and later to the US, where he worked in the medical and research fields.
He obtained his first medical licence from the Indian Medical Council in 1987, followed by a second from the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom in 1988.
He is well known around the world for his research on schizophrenia and mental health issues. Over the years, he has published more than 200 research papers and has written five books.
He is an internationally recognised research psychiatrist. His work focussed on brain function, cognition, and human behaviour in mental illnesses.
Sharma has served on several editorial boards, been selected a peer reviewer for 14 international medical journals and served on various advisory boards governing the development of antipsychotics.
Tanmay Sharma's father, Phani Sharma, was a well-known theatre artist, actor, and director in Assam. Phani Sharma is also the owner of Anuradha and the now defunct Rupayan and Anupama cinema halls.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
35 minutes ago
- Indian Express
After 6 years, intervention by 2 ministries and Delhi HC, Australian child born in India through surrogacy gets exit visa nod
It took six years and multiple back-and-forths between two key Union ministries and the Delhi High Court to ensure an exit visa for a six-year-old child born through surrogacy to Indian-origin Australian citizens in 2019, before the Surrogacy Act came into force in 2022. In the absence of clarity among the two ministries – Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) – and after several 'procedural hurdles', the MHA on May 21 directed its Bureau of Immigration to issue an exit visa to the child, subject to payment of late fees for overstay beyond 90 days. The MHA then informed the high court of its decision, recorded in an order by Justice Sachin Datta on May 26. An exit visa is permission granted to a foreigner to leave India in the absence of a valid visa or entry into a country. In the case of the child, born in India and staying here since, his passport as an Australian citizen had no entry stamp to India, thus requiring an exit visa to leave the country. The MHA's decision came after the child's father, an Australian citizen, moved the Delhi High Court earlier this year seeking directions to issue an exit visa for his child, which he had applied for nearly two years ago on April 28, 2023. He is expected to fly out later this month to Australia with his son, say his lawyers Rakesh Kumar and Puneet Kumar. The child's parents are Australian citizens with Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) registration. Born in 2019 in India, the child obtained Australian citizenship in January 2023 following a court order and after complying with the necessary processes. The child's mother, who suffers from Crohn's disease, had decided to go for a gestational surrogacy in 2019 in compliance with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Guidelines, 2005, which required the execution of a surrogacy agreement with the surrogate mother and intended parent. This was prior to the Surrogacy Regulation Act, 2021, which only came into effect in January 2022. The baby was born in Indore in June 2019, and while his mother died in 2021 due to COVID-19, by January 2023, the boy's father obtained the child's Australian citizenship along with a Mumbai civil court order granting him permission to take the minor from India to Australia. Days after issuing an Australian passport to the child in April 2023, his father applied for an exit visa on behalf of his son through the e-portal of the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO). In June 2024, the application was shown as 'completed' on the portal but with directions to 'wait for further instructions.' However, on August 14, 2024, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) issued an office memorandum (OM), informing the MHA that as per provisions of the Surrogacy Act 2021 and its Rules 2022, foreign nationals are not eligible to avail surrogacy services in India and, for a couple of Indian origin (OCI cardholders), they have to obtain a certificate of recommendation from the National Board formed under the Act before availing such surrogacy treatment. The office memorandum also sought documents from the father with respect to the surrogacy, by way of clarification. In further bureaucratic back and forth, in November 2024, the MHA sought that the father submit a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) from the MoHFW, and days later, the MoHFW telephonically informed the father that they are not responsible for issuing any such NOC. The petitioners – father and son – argued that the Surrogacy Act and its Rules cannot apply retrospectively as it was not in place when the child was born, and had termed the MoHFW's office memorandum of August 2024, directing them to submit proofs of requisite permissions as per the Act, as 'illegal'. When the case was first taken up by Justice Datta in April, it was argued that with the child obtaining admission in a school in Sydney for academic year 2025, the delay in the grant of visa is disrupting the child's education and prolonged absence from regular classes at school has led to issuance of absentee notice by the school, making him likely to suffer cancellation of his admission. At the time of the court hearing, the Union government was granted time to obtain instructions. On May 26, informing the court, the Union government submitted that 'during the year 2015, since there was no regulation on surrogacy in India, MHA had imposed restriction on grant of visa/exit permit to children born out of surrogacy to foreign nationals (including OCI cardholders).' 'Further, during the year 2021, the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021 was introduced by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and Surrogacy Rules were notified in 2022. The Surrogacy Rules permitted surrogacy only for Indian nationals and OCI cardholder parents. However, in the instant case, surrogacy was commissioned…before commencement of Surrogacy Regulation/law in India in violation of MHA guidelines,' the government told the high court. It added, 'Considering the peculiar circumstances of the case and in the interest of the child, the matter was examined in this Ministry. It has been decided to grant exit permit to the Petitioner No.1 after regularising his overstay period by charging appropriate financial penalty.' Taking the MHA's submission on record, Justice Datta thus directed that following payment of the necessary dues, the exit visa be granted to the child expeditiously, and disposed of the matter.
Time of India
41 minutes ago
- Time of India
Man gets death threat in Khagaria
Khagaria: One Diwakar Yadav, a native of Shishwa village under Gogri police station in Khagaria district has lodged an FIR against one Pandav Yadav, a co-villager, accusing him of demanding an extortion of Rs 5 lakh and threatening to kill him if he fails to pay the amount. SHO Ajit Kumar said the matter was being investigated.
New Indian Express
42 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Day after Naxal leader Sudhakar's death, encounter breaks out in same area in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur
BIJAPUR: A day after top Naxal leader Sudhakar was eliminated by security forces in Indravati National Park area in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, an encounter broke out in the same area on Friday, an official said. The encounter is part of the same anti-Naxal operation underway since Wednesday by personnel from the state police's Special Task Force (STF) and District Reserve Guard (DRG) as well as the CRPF's specialised unit CoBRA, he added. Intermittent firing between security forces and the Maoist ultras is underway, the official said, adding further details were awaited. Senior Maoist leader Narasimha Chalam alias Sudhakar, who had a bounty of Rs 40 lakh on his head, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Bijapur district on Thursday. Originally hailing from Andhra Pradesh, the 67-year-old Sudhakar was involved in indoctrination and radicalization of youth and also responsible for numerous Naxal attacks in Chhattisgarh, resulting in the death of civilians and security personnel, police said. The killing of Sudhakar, a member of the Maoists' Central Committee, comes a fortnight after CPI (Maoist) general secretary Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju (70) was neutralised by security forces in the Bastar region. Basavaraju was gunned down in Narayanpur on May 21.
