A former Chapel Hill transportation engineer was arrested Tuesday on 23 charges tied to an investment scam known as a “Ponzi scheme,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kumar Arun Neppalli, 56, of Cary, is charged with 17 counts of wire fraud and six counts of conducting transactions in criminally derived property, according to a news release. He is expected to go to trial later this year and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
Neppalli, who was hired in 2000 as Chapel Hill’s traffic engineer, abruptly resigned as the town’s traffic engineering manager on Nov. 1, 2021, after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy that October.
Then-Town Manager Maurice Jones, who resigned from his job in December, told The News & Observer after the allegations surfaced that the town was taking them seriously but did not have evidence that Neppalli used his position to unduly influence development projects.
On Tuesday, town spokesman Ran Northam said in an email that staff did not find any irregularities regarding Neppalli’s work with the town.
Bilking investors
An N&O investigation revealed that Neppalli, a native of India, was accused of bilking 15 investors out of $1.9 million in business loans that he acquired through his connections with the Triangle’s Indian community.
Four investors who spoke with The N&O said they knew Neppalli through mutual friends or state and national Indian cultural groups.
Neppalli previously served as vice president and…
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