A federal judge sentenced a former Cisco executive to 36 months in prison for wire and tax fraud, reports KRON-TV.
Prithviraj ‘Roger’ Bhikha, 51, must pay $1.15 million in restitution and more than $2.5 million in back taxes.
Bhikha admitted to getting kick back payments from a vendor and creating his own company and sending business from Cisco to his own company in violation of company policy.
According to the Justice Department, Bhikha met with the vendor in 2014 and demanded payments from the executive who ultimately paid him $1.15 million.
The DOJ also says Bhikha admitted forming a company known as Lucena Limited and then transferred control of that company to his wife. He then arranged for Lucena to receive more than $10 million in business from Cisco.
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Authorities say Bhikha went as far as have an imposter pose as the CEO of Lucena.
Cisco fired Bhikha in 2017 after learning of the ploy. He had been working for the company since 1999.
The sentence was part of a plea bargain arrangement.
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