LEXINGTON, Ky. – A Lexington woman, Jyoti Agrawal, 51, was sentenced to 42 months in federal prison on Friday, by Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering.
According to evidence at her trial, Agrawal was a co-owner of the company ScienceTomorrow, with Subhadarshi Nayak. In December 2013, Agrawal agreed with Nayak to electronically submit a proposal containing a fabricated letter of support from a key subcontractor, in order to increase their chances of receiving a Phase II SBIR grant from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in the amount of $999,266, to research and develop a scanning electron microscope detector. Agrawal knew the fake letter inflated the budget an out-of-state university had provisionally authorized in support of the project.
In 2014, the DOE awarded the Phase II grant to ScienceTomorrow, in part relying on this misrepresentation. Agrawal ultimately received more than a million dollars for the electron detector project from the DOE, and $500,000 from Kentucky’s state matching funds program, which depends on the lawful receipt of a federal grant award.
The evidence further showed that Agrawal had controlled the money and that Nayak left the project early on. Ultimately, the out-of-state university did not work on the project, as proposed, and received no payments. Bank records established Agrawal had personally accumulated over $440,000 of DOE grant funds during the two-year...
Kolkata: Kolkata Police has been grappling with a fresh challenge since the past week — controlling fake news. While it initially started with fake circulars, beginning with "restrictions" on cert...