A former top technology executive at flooring giant Mohawk Industries has been sentenced to more than seven years in prison after pleading guilty late last year to defrauding the company, federal prosecutors said in a Friday news release.
Jana Kanyadan, 54, of Marietta, previously served as Mohawk’s chief information officer. He oversaw information technology for the Calhoun-based company, including a major tech upgrade that the company launched in 2019.
In November, Kanyadan pleaded guilty to defrauding Mohawk by secretly setting up a company to provide IT services to Mohawk under that upgrade project, according to the release. Prosecutors alleged Kanyadan set up Meta Technology Platforms and approved work for the company, which billed Mohawk for more than $3 million in services across several months in 2022 without disclosing the insider relationship.
Meta Technology charged Mohawk for services and software that the company had not provided and at inflated rates, which Kanyada approved, Acting U.S. Attorney Richard S. Moultrie Jr.’s office said in the release. Mohawk paid the company $1.9 million, of which about $820,000 was fraudulent, the release said.
“Kanyadan held a position of authority as a C-suite executive at Mohawk and abused his fiduciary duty by stealing from the company that trusted him,” Moultrie said in the release. “His sentence is a reasonable one that reflects the seriousness of his criminal conduct.”
Kanyadan pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud conspiracy and seven counts of wire fraud. He was also sentenced to serve three years of supervised release and ordered by a judge to pay a $250,000 fine and nearly $1 million in restitution, the release said.
Three co-defendants in the case also entered guilty pleas but have not been sentenced.
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