A Montgomery County man pleaded guilty on Thursday to defrauding a company of more than $3.2 million through falsified payment requests, federal prosecutors said.
Ivan Victor Thrane, 65, of Dickerson, faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for wire fraud conspiracy and must pay $988,805 in restitution.
Thrane owned three construction companies in Dickerson and Beltsville, known as the Thrane companies. He admitted in his plea agreement to conspiring with a project manager at another company to submit fake payment requests for work done by the Thrane companies, prosecutors said.
An attorney representing Thrane did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
The companies had performed only some or none of the work indicated on the requests. Thrane and his partner ran the scheme from August 2015 to January 2017.
Thrane’s codefendant, Rakesh Kaushal, 66, of Rockville, is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with the scheme.
Kaushal prepared the payment requests, emailed them to Thrane, who signed them or had someone sign them on behalf of the Thrane companies, then sent them back to Kaushal, prosecutors said.
As the victim company’s project manager and executive, Kaushal approved the payments, then Thrane funneled a portion of it back to him through his personal account or a company account.
The victim company, not named by prosecutors, found evidence of overbilling in December 2016. Thrane and Kaushal sent each other contrived emails in an attempt to cover up the scheme, referring to an accountant who didn’t exist, prosecutors said.
The pair coordinated their defense once the victim company filed a civil suit against them, claiming another employee authorized the payments, prosecutors said. The employee in question hadn’t begun working at the company until after the scheme started.
The scheme generated $3,294,675.34 in payments from the victim company to Thrane companies, prosecutors said. Thrane sent $1,740,330 in checks to Kaushal. The victim company voided $741,525 in payments to the Thrane companies after it discovered the scheme.
Thrane admitted in his plea agreement the actual loss attributable to the scheme is between $1.5 million and $3.5 million.
Thrane is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 7 in U.S. District Court.
Kaushal was detained awaiting trial, and a trial date has not been set. A public defender assigned to him did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Charlie Wright can be reached at charlie.wright@moco360.media
