Thread: FBI Raids Indian Pharmacuitical

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Happy Valentine's Day everyone.


I just got off the phone with my sister. She works for an Indian Pharmacuitical company OHM in Princeton, NJ

She's home sick with the flu, but just got off the phone with a girl at work and said the FBI just raided two floors of the building. There questioning everyone right now. I don't know what their looking for. My sister says their are alot of Hb1 visas people from India coming in and out. Who knows, but it's very shocking to have 40 FBI agents in bullet proof vests raid your office.

well, keep us posted, if she finds out if it was an immigrations violation or some other criminal act.
Remember if it's the FBI it ain't for a civil summons or traffic ticket.

l'll keep everyone posted. The girl she worked with could'nt even go to the bathroom alone. She had to be escorted to the bathroom. They are questioning everyone in the conference rooms. Where they sit, what they do, ect..


I'll keep everyone posted.

There should be a good story or two comng out of this. H-1bs and L-1s are frequently fraudulent in one way or another. Thanks for the heads up!

This is more than just a visa issue. the FBI look for hard core criminal behavior. More than likely it is not the workers but something to do with managment.

There have been criminal cases involving fraudulent visas. They sometimes cross the border from statutory to criminal when they are used to funnel in people for fake jobs (circumventing immigration) and for other reasons.

My sister has alot of Indian friends at work and they call the new visa people FOB's (Fresh off the Banana boat) She's calling him now to see who or what their looking for at OHM.

Here's an update an article about the raid on Ranbaxy if anyone is interested.
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My sister says everyone at the Office is pretty traumatized. They lined everyone up and they had to show ID, SS#, asked if any of them had tatoos. The company would not explain why this happened to the employees or to the newspapers.




http://www.trentonian.com/site/news.asp?brd=1697


‘No comment’ in Ranbaxy investigation
02/16/2007
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Staff Report


PLAINSBORO--Criminal investigators and Ranbaxy USA Inc. officials remained mum yesterday on the apparent warrant search of the generic drug manufacturer’s American headquarters Wednesday by federal agents.


"We cannot comment on pending investigations," said Vickie Leduc, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Baltimore.

Agents wore jackets identifying them as "FDA-OCI Federal Agent" during the search of the India-based Ranbaxy’s offices here at 600 College Road East -- indicating they’re from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.

Numerous Trentonian calls for comment yesterday went unanswered, and no new news releases appeared on the company’s Website.

A source said that since Ranbaxy is a public company, officials will likely be forced to respond in some manner soon, to ease worries of stockholders.

On its Website, Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited, headquartered in Gurgaon, India, brags that from a small company in the Sixties it has grown "to be an integrated, research-based, international pharmaceutical company with over a billion dollar global sales ..."

"It is with the unwavering ‘dedication’ and the ‘will to win’ of Team Ranbaxy across the globe that we have traversed this journey so far.

"We are committed to provide quality generics at affordable prices to the patients worldwide with a view to help bring down the healthcare costs." Ranbaxy aims for $5 billion US sales by 2012.

"As we step into the next phase, we are driven by our ambition, willing to invest in the growth of our people and business, marching toward the new horizon of global leadership."

News stories in the past two years detail the company’s patent fight with Pfizer Inc. to produce the generic version of the cholesterol drug Lipitor, its purchases of other generic drug manufacturers, and its fight to grow in the European market even as its U.S. revenues declined 22 percent in 2005 to $331 million.

Of course, the Indian press has their own take. Here's an example:

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full ... _id=155135

Rivals may be behind FDA raid on Ranbaxy’s US office

Corporate Bureau

New Delhi, Feb 16 Even as both the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and Ranbaxy Laboratories remained tight-lipped on why the company’s New Jersey facilities were raided by criminal investigators, sources in Ranbaxy hinted that rivals in the US may have prompted the federal agency’s investigations.

The searches took place both at the company’s US headquarters in Plainsboro, NJ, and at subsidiary Ohm Laboratories’ manufacturing facility in New Brunswick, said Chuck Caprariello, vice-president, corporate communications & government affairs for Ranbaxy Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary. Papers and electronic documents were seized in the raids, he added.

In response to a query, the FDA emailed that it could not “confirm or deny FDA involvement” in the Ranbaxy case.

The federal prosecutor’s office in Maryland—where the FDA is headquartered—said “we do not comment on pending investigations”.

Asked if the investigation was criminal or civil in nature, Caprariello said, “It would be premature for anyone to speculate at this time. We’re trying to probe to find out more. The searches are a surprise as the warrant does not indicate as what agents are interested in... There are a lot more questions than answers right now.”

My sister says that the agents said to one employee, "We know exactly what we are looking for".

The management had a meeting with the employees the next day and said the agents were just TAKING A SURVEY! What a joke. I think they deserve more of an explanation. A manager apologized to my sister and looked quite shaken himself. They asked for cell phone numbers of employees, which I feel is quite strange. Too personal with the questioning, especially without lawyers.