Harish Sunkara, 51, of Fenton has pleaded guilty to stealing a total of at least $1,095,000 from investors by falsely representing an agreement between his IT company, Pace Solutions, and a Texas airport, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
Sunkara pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated identity theft on Aug. 4 in front of U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp. Each charge carries a penalty of two years in prison and possible fines of up to $250,000. In addition, Sunkara will be ordered to repay the stolen money, according.
Sunkara’s sentencing is set for Nov. 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
According to Sunkara’a guilty plea agreement, between Sept. 2, 2020, and Nov. 16, 2021, he sent potential investors false documents that said he had secured contracts with Dallas Fort Worth International Airport to provide IT training software.
The agreement said he falsified a legitimate contract he received from the airport in October 2019 that paid his company $49,500 for training software to scam potential investors. Sunkara changed the original contract to convince investors that his company would be paid between $750,000 and $950,000 by the airport.
The altered documents included the forged signature of the airport’s contract administrator, according to the agreement.
Sunkara received money from at least four investors, with one paying him $150,000, another $200,000, a third $100,000 and a fourth $640,000. However, Sunkara did not use the money for his company but instead transferred all or parts of those payments to casinos, spending about $5.5 million at casinos in Missouri and Las Vegas between 2020 and 2021, the agreement said.
“Harish Sunkara lured investors with false promises of a low-risk, high-return investment, when all he did was steal their money,” said Jay Greenberg, special agent in charge of the FBI St. Louis Division, in a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “Verify investment information independently, especially when an offer seems too good to be true.”
The FBI investigated the case. Assistant U.S. attorney Derek Wiseman is prosecuting the case.