Desai’s St Petersburg, Florida-based Universal Health Care Group, a major Medicare provider - has gone belly-up, leaving scores of Indian American physicians and entrepreneurs who invested an estimated $25 million high and dry.
The unraveling of Universal Health Care Group, which employs more than a 1,000 people in its downtown St Petersburg headquarters, of which Desai, 54, was the chairman and CEO, has also led to Desai resigning from the Florida Board of Education and as finance chair of the Florida Republican Party, with GOP sources saying Governor Rick Scott and the party bosses who had appointed him to these positions respectively, asking him to tender his resignation immediately, although Desai strongly refuted this contention.
During the presidential campaign, Desai also was appointed co-chair of Asian Americans for Romney and at the time he told Rediff.com that the GOP candidate Romney “a few months ago visited my company and spent a couple of hours and I gave him a tour and explained to him what we do and he was quite impressed.”
Desai, during the campaign, was also seen travelling with Romney in his private plane to and from major fund-raising events.
When he was appointed finance chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, it was the first time an Indian American had been chosen to head up the finance committee of any party of an entire state.
At the time, Scott, said: “A K is a tireless advocate for Florida and for our Republican party,” and predicted, “RPOF will be well served by his dedication and experience.”
Explaining the genesis of how he came to be named to this influential position, Desai, said, “Governor Rick Scott called me and urged me to consider taking up this position, saying that I had the experience and was a long-time party loyalist and having been a staunch supporter of former governors Charlie Christ and Jeb Bush. He also said that he was so impressed by my track record of activism in the Republican Party for nearly two decades.”
According to court records, Universal, more than $45 million in debt, had filed for Chapter 11 protection and it was likely to be placed in receivership - or state custody - by the Florida Department of Financial Services and consequently would be liquidated to pay off its debts and all other outstanding policy claims.
State regulators had charged that Universal had demonstrated “a pattern of mismanagement” by overstating its revenue and assets and other financials, and “releasing misleading information and failing to maintain sufficient capital to sustain thousands of insurance policies.”
Among some of the major investors in Universal were Drs Zach Zachariah of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and another longtime major Republican Party fundraiser, who had ploughed in over $6 million, and Raj Gupta, also from Fort Lauderdale, who had invested over $4 million.
Several other Indian American physicians, entrepreneurs, and even some academics had invested anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million each, and among them there was an overriding sense of deep disappointment and despondency, with one of them saying, “All the investors have been right-royally
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