Software developer indicted in Minnesota for cheating investors, financial institutions out of $10M

Federal officials in Minnesota have charged the onetime head of a software development company on allegations that he defrauded investors and financial institutions out of more than $10 million. Aditya Raj Sharma, 50, was indicted this week in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis on four counts of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud in connection with the financial swindling that ran from 2017 to 2019.

Crosscode filed for bankruptcy in 2020. Sharma appeared in court Thursday, posted a personal recognizance bond and is due back in court on Feb. 23. His attorney on Friday declined to comment about the allegations. According to court records: Sharma was the founder in 2015 of Crosscode Inc., a one person cloud based software development company headquartered first in Maple Grove and later in Foster City, Calif.

From 2017 through at least 2019, Sharma falsely inflated Crosscode's financial records to induce private investors and financial entities to extend capital to his company in order to avoid or delay financial hardship for Crosscode, which was mired in debt with virtually no incoming revenue or cash on hand.

Sharma fraudulently applied for hundreds of thousands in funding from multiple lenders and finance companies. In total, he induced at least one financial institution to provide him with a $950,000 line of credit and further induced at least 150 investors, including Minnesotans, to provide roughly $9.25 million to Crosscode..