Four former employees of Mohawk Industries, Inc. (“Mohawk”), Jana Kanyadan (Mohawk’s former Global Chief Information Officer), Sivakumar Thiyagasamadram, Madhu Shivalingegowda, and Chintan Sandesara have been indicted for allegedly defrauding Mohawk.
“These defendants allegedly took advantage of their positions to advance personal interests at Mohawk’s expense,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan. “We will prosecute those who abuse their positions of authority to steal from the employers who trust them.”
“These defendants allegedly violated the trust placed in them by their employer,” said Sean Burke, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “The FBI works hard to make sure greed like this doesn’t pay off and those who commit fraud are held accountable.”
According to U.S. Attorney Buchanan, the indictment, and other information presented in court: Jana Kanyadan served as Mohawk’s Global Chief Information Officer. Sivakumar Thiyagasamadram, Madhu Shivalingegowda, and Chintan Sandesara were Mohawk employees with responsibility for Information Technology (“IT”).
In 2019, Mohawk launched a large, multi-year IT project and outsourced work for the IT project to IT consulting firms. The indictment alleges that the defendants secretly organized and controlled a Georgia company, Meta Technology Platforms, LLC (“Meta Tech”), and used their positions at Mohawk to retain Meta Tech as a Mohawk vendor and divert Mohawk’s outsourced IT consulting work to Meta Tech.
Between approximately May and October of 2022, Meta Tech submitted invoices to Mohawk totaling approximately $3,034,411. The invoices that Meta Tech submitted to Mohawk did not disclose the defendants’ relationship to Meta Tech. The invoices also allegedly charged Mohawk for services that had not been performed, for software that had not been provided, and at inflated hourly rates that Kanyadan approved on Mohawk’s behalf. Mohawk paid Meta Tech approximately $1,857,741.40 based on these fraudulent invoices.
Jana Kanyadan, 53, of Marietta, Georgia, Sivakumar Thiyagasamadram, 54, of Cumming, Georgia, Madhu Shivalingegowda, 38, of Acworth, Georgia, and Chintan Sandesara, 39, of Marietta, Georgia, were indicted by a federal grand jury on September 12, 2023, and had their initial appearances on September 21, 2023. Members of the public are reminded that the indictment contains only charges. The defendants are presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove the defendants’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.
