Neha (Chandrasekaran) Sharma a graduate of Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering near Chennai, had specialized in biotechnology. In 2010, she came to study for a degree in chemical engineering at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand on a scholarship. She was brilliant and just in three more years, still in her mid-20s, completed Ph.D. doctorate. She did lab demonstrations for undergrads and tutored high school students in maths and science, including some of her friends’ kids. Her professors found her bright, positive and a hard worker.
According to the New Zealand press she was also a leader in her local Radha Soami religious group.
“Neha volunteered as the secretary of the Christchurch group, which met at the Mt Pleasant library, and sat on its national committee. Many times she gave sermons.
“She was the most dedicated church goer. A huge believer in the faith,” a friend, who was also a member, said.
“She would give lectures on the importance of being truthful, never deceitful.”
Those who follow Radha Soami teachings observe strict morals of honesty and integrity, truthfulness and morality and shun deceitful conduct with utmost self-control and discipline.
They practise meditation and follow a diet of no meat or alcohol, do not smoke or take drugs.
An erudite who in her mid-20s earned a Ph.D., and secretary of the Radha Soami Christchurch group, Neha came in contact with Aman Shama, from North India who worked odd jobs as labourer in Christchurch. Aman had left school in India to come to New Zealand to be an entrepreneur.
They married in New Zealand in 2015 and she became Neha Sharma.
In 2016 Neha took a job at the Ministry of Education, and became an assistant delivery manager, responsible for delivering projects in schools. Although it was not something relevant to her professional qualification, it was not something too uncommon, thus no one questioned.
In August 2018, her husband Aman chasing his entrepreneurial aspirations, set up Divine Connection Ltd, a company that provided broadband services working for the telecommunications company Universal Communication Group (UCG) to help with the fiber rollout across the country.
So far, so good for the Sharmas.
In 2021, Neha changed job to work as the Canterbury property and facilities manager for Oranga Tamariki (OT), Ministry for Children, New Zealand.
Neha liked her new job and seemed very happy. She gave the impression (to their friends) that money was rolling in, although Aman’s work contract with fibre telco laying company UCG had ended.
Some friends felt Neha was becoming rude citing her use of power as secretary (of Radha Soami Christchurch group) to throw a guy out of a presentation she was doing merely because he was asking too many questions.
Friends detected the change in their attitude and attributed it to the new high-paying job at OT.
Neha and Aman had every reason to be happy. Two months before Aman’s contract with UCG ended, she allegedly accessed OT’s internal system and added her Aman’s company as a listed contractor and began assigning it jobs to repair the agency’s properties at inflated costs through invoices she approved.
According to media reports, one contractor quoted a double-glazing job for $50,000 but Neha allegedly arranged it to be given to Divine, which had quoted $75,000 to $80,000.
Some work was assigned to Aman’s company at an alleged five times more than the going rate.
Doing one job, Aman allegedly installed a new TV meant for OT in their own living room television at their home and invoiced the agency for it.
Going absolutely against her own preaching at the Radha Soami centre, Neha hid the clear, blatant conflict of interest working for OT and giving jobs to Aman’s company, sometimes allegedly, doing the invoicing and sending to OT herself, once even during her work hours.
To ensure jobs were allocated to Aman’s Divine Connections, Neha even arranged for a friend to be employed at Christchurch call centre who would then assist in jobs being allocated to Aman’s company.
Before the couple came under the radar and Neha had to unceremoniously resign, 203 jobs were allocated to Aman’s company. Of those 203, 91 were allocated by Neha herself, 64 by the helpdesk and 20 were created by Neha’s friend.
Although Aman had to be re-assured at times, for Neha, things were working well. As the invoices for Aman’s company were getting paid and money pouring in, it was celebration time for the mastermind of the ‘robust plan’.
“Many congratulations Divine team … your payments are getting approved,” Neha wrote in a message to her husband and two close friends.
She asked her husband for a “$200 treat” for her efforts.
Neha was oblivious to the impending disastrous fall from grace. Soon, it was detected Aman’s company’s invoices lacked in some necessary information.
“No need to get worked up,” unworried Neha wrote to Aman. “We have a robust plan in place… Celebrate retiring below 35.”
Someone inside OT had picked up that Aman’s Divine Connection Ltd, a provider of services to OT had the same registered address as Neha’s residence. In November 2022, Neha received a letter from her supervisor asking for a video meeting about her husband’s company.
The reports allege Neha Sharma rorted the system and authorized payments of invoices, some of which she allegedly knew were inflated by more than 150% mark up.
Aman’s company raised 326 invoices for its services between 22 July 2021 and 28 October 2022. OT made 103 payments to add up to $2.1 million to pay all 326 invoices.
Baby brain excuse
Neha Sharma immediately resigned and claimed she had been targeted and was overwhelmed by the stress of being 12 weeks’ pregnant. Aman was removed as the sole director and shareholder of Divine Connection Ltd on the companies’ register and replaced by the couple’s friend Prince Bajaj. The company’s address was also changed.
It was too late for the Sharmas. No one would buy the baby brain excuse.
When OT investigated, it not only uncovered huge discrepancies between contracted work and Divine’s billing but also found that Neha had secured her job at OT using forged references from her previous employer.
To the utmost surprise and shock of the agencies, within days of her resignation from OT, using the same forged references, Neha applied for and succeeded in getting a job at the NZ Transport Agency.
But the honeymoon was over for the Sharmas. Within months, in March 2023, Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigators arrived. They found $800,000 in the couple’s joint bank accounts and a brand new SUV in their driveway. Sharma by then owned three properties and another two vehicles. SFO timeline here.
Immediately after the raids, Sharmas tried to dispose of their assets and move money overseas. They sold one home for $810,000 in fast sale. They had booked two one-way business class flights to Chennai, transferred $791,500 to seven Indian bank accounts associated with their families.
Now being overcautious, the transfers were at levels that didn’t trigger an internal alert with the banks.
Their efforts to run away rich were in vain. Indian authorities froze the funds using New Zealand High Court orders. The proceeds of their other properties sold were restrained from going abroad to India.
Although both Neha and Aman were charged with obtaining advantage by deception and money laundering while they were in India. Neha gave birth to their daughter, in June 2023.
They arrived back in New Zealand to face the consequences of their actions. Aman came back first and Neha followed him some months later. She has given birth to their second daughter earlier this year.
Neha Sharma pleaded guilty to being the primary offender of the lead charge – obtaining by deception and pleaded guilty to a charge of forgery in respect of the fake job references. Both Neha and Aman accepted their roles in the money laundering.
Neha is serving a three-year sentence with her newborn daughter and will be eligible for parole in a year.
Aman will be sentenced in June 2025.