Alkem Labs duped of ₹22 cr by frauds pretending to be officials of its US arm

Frauds convinced officials in Mumbai to transfer ₹51.30 crore to them, but the US police subsequently recovered ₹28.98 crore

Mumbai: Alkem Laboratories, a multinational pharmaceautical company headquartered in Mumbai, has been duped of ₹22.31 crore by unidentified cyber frauds. The frauds impersonated officials from the company’s subsidiary in the United States and convinced officials in Mumbai to transfer ₹51.30 crore to them, but the US police subsequently seized ₹28.98 crore from the defrauded amount, which was refunded to the firm, officers from Mumbai police told Hindustan Times.

Alkem Labs duped of ₹22 cr by ‘officials’ of its US arm

According to the police, the transaction occurred on October 27, 2023, two days after Alkem’s New Jersey-based subsidiary, Ascend Laboratories LLC, paid ₹51.30 crore to the parent firm towards material supplied between November 2022 and January 2023.

On 27 October 2023, to 17 November 2023, Manoj Mishra, manager of treasury operations at Alkem, received an email purportedly from Amit Ghare, head of international operations at Ascend Laboratories. In the email, Ghare claimed that he had received communication from their bank that the Ascend Labs would be charged exorbitant taxes running into millions of dollars for the payment made to Alkem on October 25, 2023.

“The fraud asked Mishra to refund the amount, claiming it would be transferred back to Alkem from a new bank account,” said a police officer from the cyber police station, where the first information report (FIR) in the case was registered following a complaint from the senior general manager of Alkem’s legal department.

The following day, on October 27, 2023, Mishra received another email, purportedly from Mary Smith, accounting manager of Ascend Laboratories, who shared details of the US-based bank account where the money was to be refunded.

“Mishra discussed the matter with his seniors and transferred the money to the bank account mentioned in the email via swift transaction,” said the cyber police officer quoted earlier.

Mishra and his colleagues at Alkem Laboratories realised that something was amiss only three weeks later, on November 15, 2023, when they received another email, purportedly from Ghare, seeking refund of a ₹90-crore payment made by Ascend Laboratories to its parent firm a day earlier.

This time, a suspicious Mishra asked his seniors to check with Ghare, who told them that he had sent no such email. Officials from Ascend Laboratories then approached the Parsipanny-Trolls Hills PD police station and reported the fraud. They also roped in a cyber expert who found that Ghare’s email address had been compromised and mails had been sent in his name from a server different from the company’s. The emails bearing Mary Smith’s name were sent from an account where just one character was different from her official mail address, the cyber expert found.

“The US police managed to seize around ₹28.98 crore, which was refunded back to the company, “ said the officer. Effectively, Alkem Laboratories was cheated of ₹22.31 crore, he added.

Police have booked the unidentified cyber frauds under sections 419 (cheating by personation), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery committed with the intention of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.