Rudy Rupak

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Rudy Rupak
Rudy Rupak.jpg
Born (1968-11-14) 14 November 1968 (age 54)
Chiswick, United Kingdom
Education IIT Guwahathi
OccupationFounder of PlanetHospital [1] & LETSBINGO [2]
Known for Medical tourism, [1] Snowboard Academy [3]
Website rudyrupak.com

Acharyya "Rudy" Rupak (born 14 November 1968) [1] [4] [5] is a serial entrepreneur known for introducing the business of medical tourism as the founder of the world's first medical tourism company, PlanetHospital. [1] [6] [7] He is also known for producing Snowboard Academy , creating a Y2K solution that was found in 1 out of every 4 computers built between 1996 and 2000, [8] being the founding CTO of American Apparel, creating the world's first livestream bingo game app hosted initially by Bob Eubanks. [2]

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In June 2014, Rudy was charged with attempted murder for violently throwing a burglar from his balcony at his Calabasas home. [9] The event led to investigations into his business activities leading Rudy to plead guilty under duress and to avoid an attempted murder charge to making interstate wire transfers, with the intent to facilitate commercial bribery, in violation of California law. His attempt to withdraw the guilty plea went all the way to the Supreme Court [10] but was dismissed during Covid. After surviving a suicide attempt. Rupak served 17 months in a federal detention center before self-deporting to Canada.

Early life

Rudy was born on 14 November 1968 in Chiswick, UK. Prior to PlanetHospital, Rudy's serial entrepreneur skills started at the age of 17 when he sold his first software business to a company that was eventually acquired by Corel Corp. just shortly after graduating high school. After a year at University of Calgary, and then at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati IIT Guwahati, [11] Rudy returned to Canada to pursue his love of film. Rudy spent three years at various film distribution companies before finally starting his own production company, Millennium Multimedia. Millennium was responsible for several video games including PRIMORTALS [12] and Boardlords, the first computer game about snowboarding. In 1996 Rudy Rupak produced Snowboard Academy for Columbia Tri-Star Entertainment, as well as She's Too Tall For Me. [13]

In 1996, Rudy's company Millennium Multimedia was mistaken for a company involved in Y2K initiatives and he seized upon the opportunity to create a software that would scan a PC's bios for Y2K compatibility. The company was taken public in 1997 under the name Planet City Software, trading symbol PINC. [14] In 1998, Rudy created an online ecommerce software tool the ecommkit [15] before exiting PINC to join American Apparel as its first CTO.

While at American Apparel, Rudy created a call center named ContactStation in Thailand, followed by partnering with Stewart Title, to introduce title insurance to India. Contact Station was sold to Loxley Inc and the title insurance endeavour fizzled out but on a trip back from India, when his wife became sick and was taken to a hospital in Bangkok, Rudy realized that there was potential in sending foreigners to Thailand for medical treatment and the medical tourism company Planethospital was born.

Filmography

After spending three years in film distribution, Rudy started his own company called Millennium Multimedia Inc in 1995 to create content for television, internet, cd-rom and motion picture. Shortly thereafter, Rudy managed to get the interest of Columbia TriStar Home Video to co-finance Snowboard Academy , [3] which was a modest success on home video and HBO and continues to play on cable. Rudy's next movie was The Final Goal, for which he took a special thanks to credit, and She's Too Tall For Me, for MGM Home Entertainment (now a division of Sony). After the failure of trying to make another snowboarding movie called Boardlords, Rudy returned to the software world but plans to return to motion pictures again.

PlanetHospital

PlanetHospital was the world's first medical tourism company which Rudy started organically from his home while he was still CTO of American Apparel. The company grew organically from 2002 to 2005 and gradually accelerated its growth as the company was mentioned in several hundred media stories including Nightline , [16] CNN, [17] and Time Magazine. [6]

While PlanetHospital was germinating, Rudy was hired by an Indian video game production company, FxLabs, to lead the charge in animation and video game development. Rudy brokered a deal between FxLabs to create the ARCHIES videogame. In 2006, PlanetHospital became the first company to send a patient from the US to India for surrogacy. In late 2006 PlanetHospital sent the first gay patient to India for surrogacy and within two years surrogacy became a $100 million plus enterprise throughout the globe.

In 2009, Rudy Rupak attempted to create an insurance product based on Medical Tourism, called DIASPORA, but the concept was deemed illegal by the California Department of Insurance and Rudy was forced to give up more shares to his investors who ultimately decided to take PlanetHospital public through a reverse merger with GlobalHealth Voyager (GLHV)(OTCBB: GLHV). [18] GlobalHealth's board ordered PlanetHospital to focus on surrogacy only and forgo marketing other aspects of medical tourism, as aspect that Rudy was not too happy with, forcing Rudy to fight a long battle to get PlanetHospital back.

Surrogacy controversy

Rudy Rupak was the first person to send a foreign patient to India for surrogacy. [19] It was a huge risk for all parties but it was successful. In 2007 Rudy sent around 25 couples to India for surrogacy, the first year he offered the service. [19] Based on this success, Rudy introduced the first gay surrogacy in India and soon Commercial surrogacy in India became a billion dollar industry. Rudy eventually introduced surrogacy to Panama, Greece and eventually Mexico. After GLHV acquired PlanetHospital, the board requested that Rudy only focus on surrogacy, a decision he vehemently protested against and ultimately led a fight to get the company back. [20]

By January 2013, GLHV officially settled out of court with Rudy Rupak to return PlanetHospital, however a month before, India had announced a ban on most surrogacy cases. [21] This situation left PlanetHospital in a precarious position as over 20 of its clients paid for services but PlanetHospital's vendors were unable to perform services and most did not refund the moneys that were paid to them prior to the ban. Undaunted, PlanetHospital started to offer surrogacy in Mexico. [22] After a huge legal expense to get his company back, and the ban on surrogacy in India that impacted close to 20 of his clients, Rudy worked with several vendors in Mexico and then attempted to purchase his own clinic in Cancun. He had hired a husband/wife legal team to assist with the challenges of surrogacy only to learn that they had started a competing company while being compensated by PlanetHospital. The team then went on to orchestrate a forced bankruptcy against PlanetHospital [23] along with a campaign to destroy Rudy's reputation. [24]

In an attempt to clear his name, Rudy met with the FBI on his own accord to discuss the many complaints they had received and pleaded guilty to bribery but then withdrew his plea. While fighting the bankruptcy challenge in court Rudy launched a lawsuit against the legal team with the understanding that any settlement would go to pay the debtors who lost money due to PlanetHospital's surrogacy disaster. [25] Since this situation, Rudy Rupak currently develops mobile apps for licensing including most recently. LetsBingo, the world's first livestream bingo game, an online comic book based on Victor Hugo's Les Misérables .[ citation needed ]

According to the US Justice department, Rudy eventually pled guilty to bribery and was sentenced to 14 months. However he attempted to withdraw the plea claiming he was forced to plea under duress when additional charges not related to bribery were added. His appeal was denied at the 9th Circuit and then ultimately to the Supreme Court where it was postponed due to the Supreme Court's hiatus related to Covid-19 precautions. Rudy surrendered on 22 July 2020, where he served five months before contracting Covid-19. [26] After several months of Covid lockdowns at the SEATAC Bureau of Prisons, Rupak was released into immigration custody after he agreed to drop his case with the supreme court in exchange for deportation to Canada.

Related Research Articles

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Allison Van Dusen (22 May 2007). "Outsourcing Your Health". Forbes. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  2. 1 2 "Virtual Bingo Parlor "LetsBingo" Debuts on Mobile Phones: Free Entertainment, Cash Prizes Bob Eubanks Hosts Live". businesswire.com. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2022.
  3. 1 2 "Snowboard Academy Full Cast & Crew". IMDb . Retrieved 4 November 2015.
  4. ↑ "Adventures in Medical Travel". Kiplinger.com. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  5. ↑ Tamara Audi and Arlene Chang (10 December 2010). "Assembling the Global Baby". Wsj.com. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Outsourcing Your Heart". TIME.com. 21 May 2006.
  7. ↑ Beth Greenfield. "Top Spots for Medical Tourism, No Matter What Supreme Court Rules On Obamacare". Forbes. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  8. ↑ https://nicelydonesites.com/y2k-20-years-afterwards/.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ {{cite web|url=https://patch.com/california/calabasas/police-fire}
  10. ↑ {{cite web|url=https://dockets.justia.com/docket/circuit-courts/ca9/20-50200}
  11. ↑ "Rupak Acharya". iit.org.
  12. ↑ "Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions". Answers.com. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  13. ↑ "She's Too Tall (1999) : Full Cast & Crew". IMDb.com. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  14. ↑ "Millennium Bug Compliance Kit - Stock Discussion Forums". Siliconinvestor.com. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "Planet City Software Delivers "E-COMM-KIT"". Internetnews.com. Retrieved 31 October 2015.
  16. ↑ "Nightline". ABC News.
  17. ↑ PlanetHospitalPress (25 August 2009). "CNN Gupta Part 2" – via YouTube.
  18. ↑ "Global Health Voyager, Inc. Completes PlanetHospital Acquisition". www.businesswire.com. 3 November 2011.
  19. 1 2 Gentleman, Amelia (10 March 2008). "India Nurtures Business of Surrogate Motherhood". New York Times.
  20. ↑ "Planet Hospital Says Bon Voyage to Global Health Voyager - Yahoo! Finance". finance.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on 20 January 2012.
  21. ↑ "India bans gay foreign couples from surrogacy". Telegraph. 18 January 2013.
  22. ↑ "Home | Montreal Gazette | Montreal Gazette".
  23. ↑ Lewin, Tamar (27 July 2014). "A Surrogacy Agency That Delivered Heartache". New York Times.
  24. ↑ "Desperate for a baby: Scammed in global surrogacy's newest frontier". Al Jazeera America.
  25. ↑ "Rudy Rupak et al v. Joseph M. Adams et al". Justia Dockets & Filings.
  26. ↑ "USA v. Acharayya Rupak". Justia Dockets & Filings. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
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