It looks like Long Island Telugu native Purnachandra Reddy Aramalla, 65, is trying to cut a deal with federal prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York.
Aramalla, who owns pharmacies in Queens and the Bronx in New York, was arrested on December 12, 2013 and charged with committing multimillion dollar healthcare drugs fraud on Medicare and Medicaid programs.
In layman’s language, Aramalla has been charged with selling second-hand, illegally diverted drugs to patients at his pharmacies.
Aramalla is currently out on bail whose terms include a $2 million personal recognition bond, electronic monitoring, home detention and surrender of travel documents.
Each of the two charges against Aramalla carries a maximum prison term of 20 years.
Plea Negotiations
In a court filing dated February 12, 2014, Preet Bharara’s assistant Niketh Velamoor said he’s had “discussions regarding a possible disposition of this case” with Aramalla’s attorney.
Because of the discussions, there’s been no formal indictment yet against Aramalla.
According to Velamoor, “the negotiations have not been completed and we plan to continue our discussions.”
We take the terms ‘negotiations’ and ‘discussions’ to mean plea bargain discussions under which a defendant will plead guilty (sometimes to a lesser charge) and get a lighter sentence as opposed to a longer sentence that comes from losing a case in a trial.
There’s no guarantee that Aramalla and Preet Bhara’s office will be able to arrive at an agreement but most likely they will in a few weeks.
The risks are high for Aramalla.
Should Aramalla decide to go trial and then lose the case, the 65-year-old Telugu bidda could well receive a long prison term and may never emerge from prison alive.
If there’s a plea deal, it’s safe to assume that it will definitely include jail time of at least 10 years and financial penalties in excess of a million dollars for Purnachandra Aramalla.
In the days following his arrest on December 2013, Aramalla’s attorney had told the media:
Mr.Aramalla denies the charges and intends to defend his case vigorously.
Strong Case
U.S. prosecutors used information provided by two unidentified cooperating witnesses with close ties to Aramalla’s pharmacies to build a strong case against Aramalla.
By cooperating with the federal prosecutors, the two witnesses hope to obtain shorter sentences.
Federal prosecutors say Aramalla’s relatives were involved in the operations of the pharmacies but did not identify them or say whether these relatives were also involved in the alleged fraud.
One of the points noted in the complaint against Aramalla was that after removing the labels from illegally diverted drugs, Aramalla’s pharmacy:
AFD combines the diverted pharmaceuticals with legitimately obtained pharmaceuticals, and sells them to customers without disclosing to customers that they contain second-hand, illegally diverted drugs. (see p.7 of complaint)
Aramalla must be presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty.
The case against Purnachandra Aramalla is being prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara’s office in the court of U.S. Magistrate Judge Debra Freeman in the Southern District of New York.
Related Aramalla Stories:
Purnachandra Aramalla Court Documents on Negotiations with Federal Prosecutors
Telugu Bidda Aramalla Falls into Bharara’s Net in Multimillion Dollar Drug Fraud Case
Telugu Bidda Purnachandra Aramalla in Plea Bargain Talks with Preet Bharara added by SearchIndia.com on
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I wonder if this is considered a white collar crime or something more serious.
Will he get to hang out with the famous con artists like Madoff?
I think the White Collar Criminals don’t have it as bad as the violent crime guys and they are treated a little more nicely.
Looks like Aramalla’s lawyers will get him a decent deal given what he’s done.
In the good’ol USA its good to have the right lawyers on your side.
As an aside what’s your take on Amma’s generosity towards Rajeev’s killers?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: As an aside what’s your take on Amma’s generosity towards Rajeev’s killers?
At first, I was incensed by Jayalalitha’s actions over the anguish it’d cause the Nehru family (Sonia, Rahul etc).
Then I remembered the Bofors looting when Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister. To this day, no one’s been punished over the Bofors looting (most actors/beneficiaries are already dead) because Congress (led by Sonia since 1991) obstructed a fair probe into the corruption scandal.
And quickly my anger over Jaya’s actions dissolved.
I have absolutely no sympathy for Sonia or Rahul (who dines and revels at the killer Salman Khan’s house) over Jaya’s actions in trying to free the scoundrels (Supreme Court has stayed their release now).
Jayalalitha is as bad or as good as the dying Sonia (I suspect she’s slowly dying of cancer), the poodle Manmohan, the butcher Modi, or the idiot Rahul.
Since all of these characters are cut from the same cloth, let’s just see the parade of events as entertainment and enjoy the show. 😉
That said, if those scumbags are released from prison I suspect it might provide an opportunity for the slow resurgence of the child-soldier recruiting monsters, LTTE.
2. If Aramalla pleads guilty, I suspect he’ll be thrown into the general population in prison.
At 65, he may not be treated as badly as Raghunandan Yandamuri or Lakshminivasa Nerusu who are younger and whose crimes seem more heinous.
Madoff is in a different class altogether.
I’m in awe of Madoff now! After all, he managed to fool the most greedy people on the planet for 25 years. And that’s no mean feat because most crooks get caught in less than five years.
Most of the people who invested with Madoff were craving obscenely high rates of returns and their greed blinded them to the daylight robbery happening in front of their eyes.
Both sides deserved what they got – Life in Prison till death for Madoff and Loss of Money for the Obscenely Greedy Pigs who were feeding at Madoff’s trough.
Maybe, life’s fair after all. 😉 And JFK was wrong.
See JFK’s famous Life is Unfair quote on YouTube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TaJKPG_YHI
I don’t worry about Rajiv Gandhi’s death, but I feel that there should be some justice for 17 innocent people who died along with them.
Jayalalitha has committed a huge, unforgivable mistake which she will regret sooner or later in life.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
The notion of justice has always been a chimera, through all ages.
No need to feel sorry for Sonia or Rahul.
Jayalalitha gave them what they deserved.
Hopefully, she will get what she deserves.
Isn’t that what they call the Karmic Wheel? 😉
http://www.hindustantimes.com/business-news/microsoft-needs-to-get-back-to-innovation-roots-says-ceo-satya-nadella/article1-1186396.aspx