Indian-origin former Microsoft executive arrested in US for fraud and embezzlement

He was charged with fraudulently applying for over $5.5 mn in small-business loans

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Mukund Mohan, a former executive at Amazon and Microsoft of Indian-origin, was arrested and on Thursday by US Department of Justice, The Seattle Times reported. Mohan was charged with forging documents and embezzling $231,000 from Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a federal stimulus aimed at helping businesses preserve jobs amid the COVID-19-linked economic collapse.

He was also charged with fraudulently applying for more than $5.5 million in US small-business loans. Mohan allegedly applied for eight loans to six companies through the Paycheck Protection Program.

Before that, Mohan worked for Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Mohan, who lives in Silicon Valley, or representatives for the companies haven’t commented on the arrest.

In one application, Mohan said one of his companies paid more than $2.3 million for payroll in 2019 and that the company had dozens of employees. According to the Attorney in Washington, Mohan acquired ownership of the company in May, and it had no employees.

Mohan, a serial entrepreneur, who has talked about managing businesses at a 2015 Ted Talk, had made numerous false and misleading statements about the companies' respective business operations and payroll expenses'. 

According to his Linkedin profile, he currently works as the chief technology officer at online Canadian building materials retailer BuildDirect.