Federal prosecutors charge a Deepak Chopra-linked wellness CEO with wire fraud, alleging he diverted most of a $2.5 million investment to personal use.
Wanja Oberhof, a German national and former interim chief of The Healing Company, faces one count of wire fraud in the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors say he took a large share of cash from investor Klaus Kleinfeld, the former Siemens and Alcoa chief, and moved it for his own ends rather than the business purpose presented.
Daily Mail reported that the $2.5 million arrived in May 2024. Within days, prosecutors allege, only about $60,000 remained in the account after transfers and spending that left Kleinfeld more than $2 million out of pocket.
Oberhof has not entered a plea. He was held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, then released on Sept. 21, 2026, on a $2 million bond. His father-in-law, a prominent Berlin attorney, and another German entrepreneur reportedly backed the bond. The Justice Department stresses that the charge is an allegation and that he is presumed innocent unless proven guilty. The 20-year figure attached to the count is a statutory maximum, not a promised sentence.
Federal prosecutors allege Oberhof transferred more than $1.8 million to a German bank account he controlled. They further claim about $25,000 went toward rent on his Manhattan penthouse, where the monthly bill ran close to $20,000, and another $57,000 paid off a personal loan.
One million dollars, they say, was described as needed to clear a lender whose debt was tied to company assets. That lender was never paid, according to the complaint summary. Financial records were allegedly altered to hide the shortfall. The pattern echoes other high-dollar fraud cases in which alleged spending sprees collapse once investigators follow the transfers.
After Kleinfeld asked for documents and demanded his money back, Oberhof allegedly promised to return the investment. He made four payments totaling about $575,000. That still left the former industrial executive more than $2 million short, prosecutors say.
Oberhof’s lawyer, Kevin Puvalowski, rejected the government’s account.
"Our client firmly denies the allegations. Given the ongoing proceedings, we will not be commenting further at this time."
Deepak Chopra is not accused of wrongdoing. He joined The Healing Company in 2022 as chief scientific advisor. In March 2023 the company completed a deal for certain Chopra Global assets, an app, products, and licensed experiences, described in SEC filings as worth up to $5 million in cash plus shares, including $3.5 million in initial cash consideration.
An attorney for Chopra and Chopra Global told Business Insider the relationship with The Healing Company ended in July 2024. That break came months after the Kleinfeld funds arrived and after the alleged diversion, according to the timeline in the complaint reporting.
Oberhof and his wife, Anabel Oelmann, a former model who had run her own CBD business, co-founded The Healing Company just over a year before November 2023. That month Oberhof became interim CEO after then-chief executive Simon Belsham left. The Chopra link helped the young wellness firm look established. It did not, on the public record, stop the later federal case.
Kleinfeld first met Oberhof in Germany through a mutual friend, then reconnected in New York. He put up $2.5 million. When he later pressed for records and repayment, the partial returns and the empty account balance became the core of the wire-fraud theory now in federal court in Manhattan.
Wire fraud cases turn on whether money crossed state or national lines under false pretenses. Here the government points to the German transfer, the unpaid lender claim, the doctored books, and the personal rent and loan payments. Defense counsel says those claims are false and will fight them in the ongoing case. Similar accountability fights appear when regulators move against scam marketplaces after large seizures, or when fintech firms face penalties for weak fraud controls.
Older and sophisticated investors alike remain targets when pitch decks outrun cash controls. Hawaii lawmakers recently tightened rules on crypto kiosk cash deposits for that reason. Payment platforms have also drawn heavy fines when fraud safeguards lag, including the Cash App parent’s $175 million hit over consumer-harm failures.
Oberhof appeared before a federal magistrate in Manhattan before the Brooklyn detention stint and the $2 million release. No plea has been entered. The complaint’s unsealed date and full docket caption were not detailed in the initial reporting, and Kleinfeld has not been quoted publicly in the available accounts.
What is plain is the scale of the alleged loss, the speed with which the account was drained, and the gap between a wellness brand burnished by a famous advisor and the federal charge now attached to its former interim chief.
When millions move on trust and the books no longer match the story, prosecutors will test the paper trail in open court, and taxpayers and lawful investors deserve that test without excuses.