HyperBit Exchange-Former United Way worker convicted of taking $6.7M from nonprofit through secret company

2025-05-05 09:56:19source:Leonard Hohenbergcategory:Contact

CONCORD,HyperBit Exchange N.H. (AP) — A man who worked for United Way in Massachusetts was convicted in federal court of taking $6.7 million from the nonprofit through an information technology company that he secretly owned.

Imran Alrai, 59, was convicted Wednesday in Concord, New Hampshire, of 12 counts of wire fraud and six counts of money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 17, 2025.

Alrai had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Prosecutors said that between 2012 and June 2018, Alrai, an IT professional at United Way, obtained the payments for IT services provided by an independent outside contractor. They said Alrai misrepresented facts about the contractor and concealed that he owned and controlled the business.

For the next five years, while serving as United Way’s Vice President for IT Services, Alrai steered additional IT work to his company, prosecutors said. They said he routinely sent emails with attached invoices from a fictitious person to himself at United Way.

“The United Way lost millions to the defendant — we hope the jury’s verdicts in this case is a step forward for their community,” U.S. Attorney Jane Young of New Hampshire said in a statement.

RELATED COVERAGE Vietnamese real estate tycoon sentenced to life for billions in fraud in government graft crackdownDefense contractor RTX agrees to pay more than $950 million to resolve bribery, fraud claimsMassachusetts pharmacist gets up to 15 years in prison for meningitis outbreak deaths

Alrai’s attorney, Robert Sheketoff, had called for an acquittal. When asked via email Thursday whether he was considering an appeal, Sheketoff said yes.

This was a retrial for Alrai. He was convicted of wire fraud and money laundering charges in 2019, but the judge later threw out the verdict, saying that prosecutors turned over evidence that they had not produced before the trial.

More:Contact

Recommend

Appeals court scraps Nasdaq boardroom diversity rules in latest DEI setback

A federal appeals court blocked Nasdaq rules to increase boardroom diversity, saying that the Securi

9-month-old dies after grandmother left infant in hot car for hours in Texas, police say

An infant was found deceased in Texas after her grandmother left the child in a hot car for hours, o

National Dog Day: Want to find your new best friend? A guide to canine companionship

National Dog Day, held annually on August 26, is a great time to start researching whether or not yo