According to the LA Times, a former AFTRA executive and a business vendor have been arrested and charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud following a connection with an alleged invoicing scheme that cost the AFTRA health and retirement fund millions of dollars.
According to reports, Enrico Rubana worked in the IT department for AFTRA Retirement Fund in New York. The fund works by providing retirement benefits to actors, and is legally separate entity from the SAG-AFTRA union.
On Thursday, Rubana was arrested along with Shivanand Maharaj. Maharaj was listed as an outside vendor that engaged in business with the AFTRA Retirement Fund.
From the LA Times:
Both individuals are alleged to have devised a scheme in which companies they owned or controlled submitted invoices to the AFTRA Retirement Fund for millions of dollars in information technology services that they did not perform, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Department of Justice explained that both Rubano and Maharaj were able to fraud the AFTRA Retirement Fund out of $3.4 million over the course of six years.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara explained in a statement how Rubano was allegedly able to make millions. Rubano “allegedly had the fund make payments based on hundreds of fake invoices to [Maharaj’s] company, not for IT work actually done by that company, but really in exchange for alleged kickback payments to Rubano.”
The AFTRA Retirement Fund explained that they noticed a discrepancy during an internal review of the Retirement Fund. “During one of these periodic internal reviews of operations, AFTRA Retirement found evidence that there may have been unauthorized expenditures in connection with a vendor relationship,” AFTRA Retirement Fund explained.
“AFTRA Retirement immediately undertook a careful review of the evidence and promptly notified federal law enforcement authorities. AFTRA Retirement has actively cooperated in this investigation and we have been informed that former AFTRA Retirement employee Rick Rubano and an outside vendor have been arrested in connection with the government’s investigation. “
