Rich NRI Paul Parmar was known for his lavish lifestyle, housed in a 39,000 square feet mansion in New Jersey.
Parmjit “Bull” Parmar, the Indian-origin investor who once described himself as recession-proof while continuing to splurge money in 2008, was sentenced to five years in prison. Parmar pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud involving inflating revenues, falsifying bank records, and misleading investors in the publicly traded health care services company where he served as CEO.
It is estimated that the fraud involved more than $212 million.
A 39,000 square foot mansion in New Jersey
Parmar was known for his lavish lifestyle and his 39,000 square feet mansion was widely featured in the media. One account from the time details how his palace had an underground tunnel to connect the main house to the entertainment annex. The annex has an indoor swimming pool, bowling alley, wine cellar, gym, small theater and bar. Among the hotel’s many swimming pools, one was a saltwater pool surrounded by imported sand.In 2008, at the height of the global financial collapse, Parmar gave interviews and declared that the recession had not affected him and claimed that he was helping the economy by continuing to spend heavily on luxury goods. He told reporters that he recently bought a $110,000 BMW for his girlfriend and a Bentley for himself.However, by 2011, Parmar’s financial fortunes had reversed. The mansion entered foreclosure proceedings for approximately $26.3 million owed, primarily to Deutsche Bank.
Self-made businessman
In previous interviews, Parmar has said that he grew up in India and came to the United States at the age of 19. He started alone without any support from his family. At the age of 25, he founded Bijagos Consulting Group and then entered into several companies.
Fraud
Court documents show Parmar’s legal troubles stem from his leadership of a health care company. He and others allegedly created false client lists, fabricated financial statements, and used forged documents to attract investors.“From May 2015 through September 2017, Parmar and his co-conspirators, including Sotirios Zaharis, Sam Zaharis, and Ravi Chivukula, orchestrated an elaborate scheme to defraud a private investment firm and others out of hundreds of millions of dollars in connection with the financing of a deal to acquire a publicly traded private health care services company on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange.
To finance the transaction, the private equity firm committed approximately $82.5 million and a consortium of financial institutions provided another $130 million, for a total of approximately $212.5 million. The conspirators used fraudulent methods to greatly inflate the company’s value and deceived others into believing its value was much greater than its actual value, the court document said.
