The following is an excerpt from Fierce Pharma.
The other shoe has dropped in the case of two Viatris employees who allegedly used insider information to make trades that netted them $7.2 million.
The SEC has charged the company’s chief information officer Ramkumar Rayapureddy with providing tips to a friend and former colleague who was said to execute trades and share profits by way of cash exchanges made with Indian currency.
According to charging documents, Rayapureddy provided information on four separate occasions between September of 2017 and July of 2019 to Dayakar Mallu, who executed the trades.
In September of last year, Mallu, 52, pleaded guilty to the scheme.
Mallu, the former chief of global IT operations who left the company in 2017, netted $4.27 million from the trades and was ordered to pay a fine of $4.8 million. He awaits sentencing, facing a maximum imprisonment of 25 years.
Rayapureddy—a 54-year-old who resides in Pennsylvania and still is employed by Viatris—is charged with three counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
If convicted of all charges he would face a maximum of 65 years in prison.
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I suspect there are quite a few congressmen and senators who made a bundle of dough as speculators during the so-called 'pandemic.' The logic follows that even though the curve was flattened in 2020, the federal govt kept up the mandate dialogs, and were privy to "insider" information re which pharma/med companies (masks as one example) were poised for a tidy profit. With the increase in the hospital use of PPE and face shields, we are witness to a growing turnstile business--lotta throwaway--that has created herd lockstep among hospital administrations-- and a boon to the companies that make these products. Following the money is a ceaseless task.