Investigating a Contemptible Fraud

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

I've seen all kinds of fraud. Some are mind-numbing. Others are intriguing or preposterous. But only a few are truly contemptible. The cover story in this month's Fraud Magazine tells of a fraud that endangered the lives of the poorest of the poor while generating millions for the fraudsters.

On May 13, 2013, Ranbaxy USA Inc., a subsidiary of Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, pleaded guilty to seven federal criminal counts of selling adulterated drugs with intent to defraud, failing to report that its drugs didn't meet specifications and making intentionally false statements to the government. Ranbaxy, in the largest drug safety settlement to date with a generic drug manufacturer, agreed to pay $500 million in fines, forfeitures and penalties.

Dinesh Thakur, a former research executive with Ranbaxy, blew the whistle on the company after his boss found that it had provided false data to the World Health Organization. Thakur, then a new employee, investigated and discovered a company culture that not only tolerated fraud but also apparently celebrated and encouraged it among its employees. His boss reported Thakur's results to the board, and he then later resigned in protest. Thakur also resigned after Ranbaxy falsely accused him of breaking company rules.

Thakur eventually took his discoveries to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and endured almost nine years of aiding governmental investigative agencies before Ranbaxy finally pleaded guilty.

"It certainly was cathartic to stand in the Federal Court in the District of Maryland in May of last year to hear the company plead guilty to seven counts of felony," Thakur says in the cover interview article. "I felt the weight of this case removed from my shoulders. It was a victory not just for me and my legal team, but the hundreds of millions of patients worldwide who were subjected to adulterated medicines by this company in the most unethical manner. More importantly, this case sent a strong message to manufacturers of medicines that you cannot hide from the long arm of the law just because you are a foreign entity."

For "Choosing Truth Over Self," the ACFE honored Thakur with its Sentinel Award at the recent 25th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference.

I know that we'll see many more contemptible frauds. But thanks to Thakur, and the diligent investigators who investigated Ranbaxy's systemic crimes, we'll see a bit less fraud that ravages the defenseless. 

Keynotes Announced for ACFE Global Fraud Conference in San Antonio, Texas

AUTHOR’S POST

Mandy Moody, CFE
ACFE Social Media Specialist

“No matter where you are in your career, you will benefit from this conference.” “To have such a wide variety of topics and individuals is truly unique.” “There is something for everybody.” These are just a handful of the comments I recently heard when conducting video interviews with some of our ACFE faculty about the ACFE Global Fraud Conference. I hear feedback like this regularly, some solicited and some not. The selection of concurrent sessions, Pre- and Post-Conference sessions and keynotes is diverse; it spans industries, job levels, interests and even career goals. This year we will have more than 70 concurrent sessions to choose from and five keynote sessions I am excited to announce.

Here is the lineup so far:

• Louis Freeh, Former Director, FBI, “Corporate America's Top Investigator”
  Dubbed “the singularly best-suited person in America to run the FBI” by former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Freeh has been heralded for transforming the FBI into a global security institution. During his eight-year tenure, he visited 62 countries and met with more than 2,000 foreign leaders while increasing the FBI’s focus on counterintelligence, cybercrime and electronic surveillance. Freeh has kept his investigation skills sharp through his involvement in several high-profile cases with Penn State, MF Global and BP.
• Peter Eigen, Founder, Transparency International
  Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen has worked in economic development and governance for several decades and has led initiatives for better global governance and the fight against corruption.
• Martin Kenney, International Asset Recovery Expert
  Kenney's work as a global asset chaser has resulted in recovering billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains from fraudsters; he is widely regarded as a groundbreaker in his field.
• Marc Goodman, Global Strategist, Cyber Security Expert, Senior Advisor, Interpol Steering Committee on Information Technology Crime
  Over the past 20 years, Goodman has built his expertise in security threats such as cybercrime and cyber terrorism, working with organizations such as Interpol, the United Nations and NATO.
• Dinesh Thakur, Ranbaxy Whistleblower
  Eighty percent of prescriptions dispensed in the U.S. contain foreign sourced ingredients and more than 40 percent of the prescriptions are fully manufactured overseas. Former Ranbaxy Laboratories (an India based pharma company) executive Dinesh Thakur discovered that the company was falsifying drug data and violating current good manufacturing and laboratory practices in order to gain competitive advantage in the U.S. market. His eight-year collaboration with the U.S. FDA and the Department of Justice to unravel the dangerous fraud led to a 2013 guilty plea by Ranbaxy and a groundbreaking $500 million settlement, the largest  of its kind against a generic drug manufacturer.

I look forward to seeing you and nearly 3,000 anti-fraud professionals from around the world at the 25th Annual ACFE Global Fraud Conference in San Antonio, June 15-20, 2014. Find session topics, networking details and more at FraudConference.com. Don’t forget, last year’s conference sold out; register early by April 1 so you don’t miss your chance to attend.