Tuesday, June 23, 2020

Opioid Crisis: Indian-American Pharma CEO Jailed

Dr. John Nath Kapoor, Indian-American CEO of Insys Therapeutics, has been found guilty of conspiring to recklessly and illegally boost profits from the opioid painkiller Subsys, a fentanyl spray designed to be absorbed under the tongue, according to multiple media reports.


Dr. John Nath Kapoor
In 2018, data showed that opioid overdoses killed an average of 128 Americans everyday.  Last year, nearly 70,000 Americans died of opioid overdoses.  Opioid abuse has become a public health crisis with devastating social, economic and health consequences in vast swathes of America.  In spite of knowing the dangers opioids posed, drug companies like Kapoor's Insys heavily promoted such drugs by paying physicians to overprescribe, resulting in enormous company profits.

Kapoor has received five and a half years jail sentence.  CBS has reported that others working for him have been sentenced to serve from 12 to 33 months, in part because of the testimony of the government's star witness: Alec Burlakoff, the senior vice president of sales at Insys, who had pled guilty and cooperated with prosecutors.

Kapoor, billionaire entrepreneur and former CEO of Insys Therapeutics, was born in Amritsar, India. He studied pharmacy at Institute of Chemical Technology in Mumbai, India. He received a doctorate in medicinal chemistry from University of Buffalo, New York, in 1972. He became a major American success story until he was arrested and charged in 2017 under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) laws.

Earlier in June, 2020, three Indian-American physicians were found to have faked results of a hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) study they published in New England Journal of Medicine and The Lancet. Both journals were forced to retract it.

Last year, an Indian-American operator and several Indian-American and other doctors participating in a home health care business in Silicon Valley were charged by US federal prosecutors with fraud.

India and Pakistan are among the top three sources of foreign medical professionals in the United States.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

South Asia Investor Review

Indian-American COVID19 Researchers Face Fraud Charges

Indian-American Operator Charged With Fraud By US Federal Prosecutors

India and Pakistan Among Top Sources of Foreign Medical Professionals

Howdy Modi Rally Exposes Indian-Americans to Hypocrisy Charges

Silicon Valley India-American Congressman Rejects Hindutva, Joins Pakistan Caucus

H1-B Visa Abuse By Indian-American Body Shops

Silicon Valley Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna Defeats Pro-Modi Candidate

Riaz Haq's Youtube Channel

13 comments:

Rashid A. said...

Thank you Riaz Sahib.

While some have addiction of Opioids, others have addition to Moneyoids! Love of money, or greed will make one do things one himself cannot believe.

Even for this case there are many Wall Street types who say, “ 5.5 years is nothing, when he will come out he would still have hundreds of millions of dollars. Not a bad deal”.

For these people jail time is just cost of doing business, real punishment is confiscation of all ill gotten wealth. They cannot handle that.

These people count success how many coins they have and how many zeros on the left side of decimal.

Riaz Haq said...

Rashid sahib:

Kapoor's Insys (sublingual fentanyl spray) made a ton of money but there are much bigger pharma players like Purdue Pharma (OxyContin) and Johnson & Johnson (supplier of 60% of opiate ingredients) who are the biggest beneficiaries of the opioid crisis that has claimed over 200,000 American lives. It has devastated entire towns in the Trump country in the Midwest and the South. "Hillbilly Elegy" by JD Vance describes the destruction of many poor white families, including his own, who became victims of opioids.

Rashid A. said...

نبی کریم صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم نے فرمایا:

‏لوگوں پر ایک ایسا زمانہ آئے گا کہ انسان کوئی پرواہ نہیں کرے گا کہ جو اس نے حاصل کیا ہے وہ حلال سے ہے یا حرام سے ہے۔ (صحیح بخاری، ۲۰۵۹)

Riaz Haq said...

Rashid Sahib,

This Hadith so apropos!

In fact, it describes the essence of laissez faire capitalism we see today

Ahmad F. said...

That has been the state of mankind since the very beginning. Every episode of history, every continent on the planet has witnessed such high handedness and corruption.

Riaz Haq said...

Ahmad: "That has been the state of mankind since the very beginning. Every episode of history, every continent on the planet has witnessed such high handedness and corruption."

This comment suggests that the "western civilization" is just a hoax!

Notwithstanding a few wrist slaps here and there, it's essentially the survival of the fittest!

Anonymous said...

Profile photo for Taruni Adarsh
Taruni Adarsh
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Former Wall Street InvestorUpdated Feb 26
Companies ruined or almost ruined by Indians;

Adaptec - Indian CEO Subramanian Sundaresh fired.
AIG (signed outsourcing deal in 2007 in Europe with Accenture Indian frauds, collapsed in 2009)
AirBus (Qantas plane plunged 650 feet injuring passengers when its computer system written by India disengaged the auto-pilot).
Apple - R&D CLOSED in India in 2006.
Apple - Foreign guest worker "Helen" Hung Ma caused the disastrous MobileMe product rollout.
Australia's National Australia Bank (Outsourced jobs to India in 2007, nationwide ATM and account failure in late 2010).
Bell Labs (Arun Netravalli took over, closed, turned into a shopping mall)
Boeing Dreamliner ES software (written by HCL, banned by FAA)
Bristol-Myers-Squibb (Trade Secrets and documents stolen in U.S. by Indian national guest worker)
Caymas - Startup run by Indian CEO, French director of dev, Chinese tech lead. Closed after 5 years of sucking VC out of America.
ComAir crew system run by 100% Indian IT workers caused the 12/25/05 U.S. airport shutdown when they used a short int instead of a long int
Dell - call center (closed in India because Premji's conmen don't even know how to use telephones, let alone computers)
Delta call centers (closed in India because Premji's conmen don't even know how to use telephones, let alone computers)
Fannie Mae- Hired large numbers of Indians, had to be bailed out. Indian logic bomb creator found guilty.
GM - Was booming in 2006, signed $300 million outsourcing deal with Wipro that same year, went bankrupt 3 years later
HSBC ATMs (software taken over by Indians, failed in 2006)
Intel Whitefield processor project (cancelled, Indian staff canned)
Lehman (Spectramind software bought by Wipro, ruined, trashed by Indian programmers)
Microsoft - Employs over 35,000 H-1Bs. Stock used to be $100. Today it's lucky to be over $25. Not to mention that Vista thing.
Microsoft - Lian Yang, Microsoft-Contracted Engineer, Arrested in Smuggling Plot After Another FBI Sting in Portland in 2010
MIT Media Lab Asia (canceled)
PeopleSoft (Taken over by Indians in 2000, collapsed).
Qantas - See AirBus above
Quark (Alukah Kamar CEO, fired, lost 60% of its customers to Adobe because Indian-written QuarkExpress 6 was a failure)
Rolls Royce (Sent aircraft engine work to India in 2006, engines delayed for Boeing 787, and failed on at least 2 Quantas planes in 2010, cost Rolls $500m).
Skype ( Yarlagadda fired)
State of Indiana $867 billion FAILED IBM project, IBM being sued
State of Texas failed IBM project.
Sun Micro (Taken over by Indian and Chinese workers in 2001, collapsed, has to be sold off to Oracle).
United - call center (closed in India because Premji's conmen don't even know how to use telephones, let alone computers)
Virgin Atlantic (software written in India caused cloud IT failure)
Visium Asset Management - Sanjay Valvani Insider trading
World Bank (Indian fraudsters BANNED for 3 years because they stole data).

https://www.quora.com/Do-Indians-really-ruin-a-lot-of-western-companies-or-they-are-just-scapegoats

Riaz Haq said...

#Americans duped into losing $10 billion by illegal #Indian call centers in 2022. Most of the victims of these #fraud calls from Indian phishing gangs were elderly #US citizens above the age of 60 years, according to #FBI. #India
https://www.deccanherald.com/national/americans-duped-into-losing-10-billion-by-illegal-indian-call-centres-in-2022-report-1175156.html @deccanherald

After several incidents were reported in 2022, the FBI has now deputed a permanent representative at the US embassy in New Delhi. The representative will work closely with the CBI, Interpol and the Delhi Police to bust these gangs that have put India under the threat to be termed as the hub of such illegal call centres.

Americans lost a total of $10.2 billion in 2022 so far, which is a 47 per cent increase from 2021’s $6.9 billion, to such fraud calls. FBI’s South Asia head Suhel Daud told the publication that "romance-related" frauds reported were worth Rs 8,000 crore in 2021 and Rs 8,000 crore in the last 11 months of 2022. Losses due to "tech support" crimes were as much as $3 billion in the last two years – $347 million in 2021 and $781 million in 2022 so far.

“It may not be a national security concern yet, but the reputation (of a country) is involved, and we don’t want India to suffer on that count,” Daud told the publication. He also noted that the FBI’s website has registered 8.5 lakh complaints in 2021 and over 7.8 lakh complaints so far in 2022 in regard to internet crimes. Those complaints included cyber crime related to investment ($3 billion), business email compromise ($2.4 billion), personal data breach ($1.2 billion), romance($1 billion) and tech support ($781 million).

Riaz Haq said...

Wells Fargo sacks #India VP Shankar Mishra for #urinating on #AirIndia co-passenger. Shankar Mishra, in an inebriated state, urinated on a senior citizen in her 70s, in business class of an Air India flight from #NewYork to #NewDelhi. #urinator #drunk

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/wells-fargo-terminates-india-vp-shankar-mishra-for-urinating-on-woman-co-passenger-9823021.html

American financial services company Wells Fargo, on January 6, sacked Shankar Mishra, India Vice-President of its entity in India as Mishra, in an inebriated state, urinated on a woman in her 70s, in business class of an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi.

“This individual has been terminated from Wells Fargo. We are cooperating with law enforcement and ask that any additional inquiries be directed to them,” the company said in a statement released on January 6.

The company also said it holds its employees to the highest standards of professional and personal behaviour and that it found these allegations deeply disturbing.

After news of Mishra urinating on a woman co-passenger on board an Air India flight on November 26, 2022, was reported, the Delhi Police on January 5 wrote to the concerned authorities seeking a Look Out Circular (LOC) against Shankar Mishra.

Riaz Haq said...

Indian-American FTX's Nishad Singh Pleads Guilty to Fraud Charges

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-ftxs-nishad-singh-once-an-honors-student-fell-into-crypto-crime-a37197a9

Nishad Singh followed Sam Bankman-Fried into the high-stakes world of cryptocurrency trading. Now he could help put the former FTX chief executive in prison.

Mr. Singh, the 27-year-old former director of engineering at FTX, pleaded guilty this week to six criminal counts, including wire fraud. He agreed to cooperate with the government’s investigation of FTX’s collapse.

The deal means Mr. Singh could end up testifying against a colleague and friend whom he has known since childhood. Just a few months ago, he and Mr. Bankman-Fried were housemates in the Bahamas, living in a luxury penthouse with other executives at FTX and its sister trading firm, Alameda Research.

“I’m unbelievably sorry for my role in all of this and the harm that it has caused,” Mr. Singh said in a court hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday.

Riaz Haq said...

Ozy Media and Its Founder Carlos Watson Indicted in a Years-Long Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme | USAO-EDNY | Department of Justice

Indian American Samir Rao

https://www.justice.gov/usao-edny/pr/ozy-media-and-its-founder-carlos-watson-indicted-years-long-multi-million-dollar-fraud

Watson’s co-conspirators Samir Rao, Ozy’s Chief Operating Officer, and Suzee Han, Ozy’s Chief of Staff from June 2019 to October 2021, previously pleaded guilty to charges relating to their roles in the scheme. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is taking concurrent enforcement action.

Riaz Haq said...

Prateek Gupta: The Big Indian Defaulter behind a $500 Million International Commodities Fraud

https://www.moneylife.in/article/prateek-gupta-the-big-indian-defaulter-behind-a-500-million-international-commodities-fraud/70001.html

We take great pride in the fact that many successful Indians are occupying corner offices at the world’s largest and most powerful corporate houses and every action of theirs makes news in India. The flip side is that people of Indian origin will also hit the headlines for zip and enterprise of another kind—for gigantic fraud, running mega scams and even market manipulation. These stories are buried in tiny reports and rarely make it to front pages or television debates.

For instance, how many of us remember that the ‘Flash Crash’ of 6 May 2010, which wiped out a trillion dollars in five minutes, was the handiwork of a young, reclusive Indian called Navinder Singh Sarao, trading alone out of west London. Those who want to know the fascinating details should read Flash Crash by Liam Vaughan who describes the global manhunt to catch Sarao, characterised as a ‘trading savant’.

Another Indian who is making news abroad, but doesn’t figure on our media channels, is Prateek Gupta of Ushdev International Ltd, despite his history of cheating several banks in India. He has recently acquired the dubious cred of having cheated Trafigura, a global commodities trading giant, of a whopping US$577mn (million) in a nickel deal. This is when his admitted dues to Indian banks were over Rs3,500 crore and total liabilities around Rs4,205 crore. He was being investigated by the central bureau of investigation (CBI).

So what is Prateek Gupta’s story? Let’s start with why he is in the news today.

Trafigura Scammed of US$500 Million
On 9th February, the global commodity trading giant Trafigura group Pte issued a press release which said it had “discovered a systematic fraud committed by a group of companies” to the tune of US$577mn by companies controlled by Prateek Gupta, in connection with a deal to purchase about 25,000 tonnes of ‘containerised nickel’. Trafigura had entered into a ‘transit finance’ deal, or what would be called a ready-forward deal, where it would buy nickel from companies connected to Mr Gupta and sell them back to the same companies in future at a higher price that covers interest cost.

Sometime after October 2022, Trafigura inspected eight shipping containers and found that they did not contain nickel or even nickel alloy. As it expanded its inspection to a few hundred containers (out of over 1,100 covered by the deal), it discovered more of the same. Instead of nickel or nickel alloy, whose prices have been shooting up since the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the containers contained carbon steel, whose value is a fraction that of nickel.

The Trafigura group, which operates across commodity businesses, employs 12,000 people across 156 countries, rushed to court in February and obtained a ‘worldwide freezing order’ of US$625mn against Mr Gupta and his companies, led by TMT Metals Holdings Ltd based in London. The London high court order restrained individuals and businesses from dealing with Mr Gupta’s assets anywhere in the world. It is open to challenge by the Gupta group and the hearings will commence soon. Reports in the international media suggest that Trafigura has had a legitimate business relationship with Mr Gupta’s companies since 2015.

Prior to this, Mr Gupta has inflicted even greater losses on Indian public sector banks (PSBs). It would seem that he was building his international commodity businesses through money diverted from the Indian company. He bought TMT Metals AG, a trading firm, in 2016. He also has companies in Singapore, Malaysia and Switzerland.

Riaz Haq said...

How Swami Nithyananda's ‘fake country’ Kailasa fooled 30 US cities with ‘Sister City’ scam? Explained

Sanchari Ghosh

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/how-swami-nithyananda-s-fake-country-kailasa-fooled-30-us-cities-with-sister-city-scam-explained-11679042510469.html

Controversial godman Swami Nithyananda and his fictional country "Kailasa" is in the news again and this time, for duping the city of Newark in New Jersey, United States. Apparently, Newark. admitted to falling victim to a scam that led them to become a "Sister City" with a fake Hindu nation.


The incident occurred when Mayor Ras Baraka invited representatives of Kailasa to Newark City Hall for a "cultural trade agreement," only to discover later that Kailasa was not a real country.

Despite Newark's apparent commitment to partnering with diverse cultures to enrich each other with connectivity, support, and mutual respect, the city reportedly did not realize Kailasa's inauthenticity until after an official ceremony had already taken place.

Footage shows city officials signing documents and taking photographs during the ceremony to become a "Sister City" with "Kailasa."

Following the incident, the Newark City Council reportedly rescinded the agreement just days after signing the "Sister City" agreement papers. One city council member called the oversight "unacceptable" and said it "cannot happen any longer."

Newark is not the only city to sign the ‘Sister City’ deal…
The funny thing is as many as Newark is not the only city to sign this deal with Kailasa. As per the website of the United States of Kailasa, it has as many as 30 cities in the United States. And a Fox report said, most mayors have accepted of signing such deals.

How Kailasa got these cities to sign the deal?
The report cited, that the cities claimed that the ‘proclamation is not an endorsement but a response to a request’. Most of them further confirmed that ‘they did not very the information in the request’.

That means, Kailasa got them to sign the deal simply by requesting them to do so.

What is Kailasa?
'Kailasa' is a self-proclaimed country founded by controversial godman Nithyananda, who purchased an island off the coast of Ecuador and named it after a sacred site for Hindus. 'Kailasa' claims to be a movement founded by members of the Hindu Adi Shaivite minority community from Canada, the United States, and other countries. It offers a safe haven to all the world's practicing, aspiring, or persecuted Hindus.

However, 'Kailasa' is not recognized as a country by the United Nations or the international community, and it is considered a micronation. Despite this, the 'Kailasa' movement maintains a strong social media presence and claims to have various departments, including treasury, commerce, sovereign, housing, and human services, as well as a flag, a constitution, an economic system, a passport, and an emblem.