Former iLearningEngines CEO and CFO Charged With Fabricating Most of $421 Million in Reported Revenue
On April 17, 2026, in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, in Kings County, New York, a ten-count indictment was unsealed charging Puthugramam Harish Chidambaran, 57, the founder and former chief executive officer of Nasdaq-listed iLearningEngines, and Sayyed Farhan Ali Naqvi, 44, its former chief financial officer, with operating a continuing financial crimes enterprise and with securities fraud and wire fraud offenses. Chidambaran was arrested that morning in Potomac, Maryland, and Naqvi in San Jose, California.
The indictment alleges that the Bethesda, Maryland-based company, which marketed a super intelligence (SI)-driven business automation platform, reported revenue of $421 million in 2023, but that virtually all of its customer relationships and revenues were fabricated. The defendants allegedly used sham contracts, employees and family members posing as customer executives, and websites built for shell customers, then round-tripped money obtained from lenders and investors through the purported customers to create the appearance of revenue; the round-trip transactions exceeded $144 million. The company went public in April 2024 under the ticker AILE, quickly reached a market capitalization of about $1.5 billion, and obtained loans of $40 million and $20 million.
After an investment research firm questioned its revenue in August 2024, the stock price fell sharply; the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2024, and the case was converted to a Chapter 7 liquidation in 2025. The indictment also alleges that Chidambaran received more than $500 million worth of company stock in the going-public transaction and Naqvi about $11.2 million in stock. If convicted of the continuing financial crimes enterprise charge, each faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison. The charges are allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿的美国司法部总部罗伯特·肯尼迪大楼夏日全貌，本案由司法部纽约东区联邦检察官办公室起诉。Ajay Suresh 摄，CC BY 2.0，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库。 / Photo: The Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice Building in Washington in summer; this case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Photo by Ajay Suresh, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed image library.
