Washington: An Indian-American doctor, known for promoting classical Indian dances in the US, has been sentenced to nearly 10 years of imprisonment for defrauding his former company's shareholders worth USD 49 million.

Washington: An Indian-American doctor, known for promoting classical Indian dances in the US, has been sentenced to nearly 10 years of imprisonment for defrauding his former company's shareholders worth USD 49 million.

Sreedhar Potarazu, an ophthalmic surgeon licensed in Maryland and Virginia, provided materially false and misleading information to VitalSpring's shareholders to induce more than USD 49 million in capital investments in the company.

Potarazu, 51, represented on numerous occasions that VitalSpring was a financially successful company and that the sale of VitalSpring was imminent, which would have resulted in profits for shareholders, the Department of Justice alleged. The Indian-American doctor also admitted that he concealed from shareholders that VitalSpring failed to account for and pay over more than USD 7.5 million in employment taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.