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Sunday, December 27, 2009
Confessions of a Corporate Hitman
My name is Howard Fry, and I am a Corporate Hitman. I work for companies that require covert action with competitors in order to secure their interests. In the past Seven years I have worked hard to earn a reputation allowing me to compete globally. I have succeeded.
My line of work exposes me to matters that the exposure thereof, would bring severe detriment to serious business players, of course confidentiality is a cornerstone of my work ethic, hence the names of persons, companies and events have been altered in order to preserve such confidentiality.
I was hired by a global pharmaceutical company called Sidley – Remington (SR), who were developing a drug that treats Anger. Since a lot of people could live a lot better with less anger with their lives, the company could make billions with such a breakthrough. SR Pharma is engaged into fierce head to head competition with another global company working on a similar compound. That company is called Phizing.
Phizing had a vacancy open for chief compliance officer for Middle East North Africa. Basically what a compliance officer does, is check that all the company’s dealings are done legally and ethically. Pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money making sure their operations do not bring about negative exposure. Of course, for a compliance officer to do his job properly, he would have unlimited access to all company information. After securing that position, for being the most qualified candidate for that job, I began making inquiries into the company’s marketing practices in Dubai. Since Pharmaceutical companies are prohibited from advertising their products, marketing is quite different in this sector. It involves awareness programs and collaboration with patients to create brand equity. Some of these programs and collaborations create appeal by offering value added to the patients or health care professionals ( doctors, pharmacists, nurses etc…). Should it be found out that a patient of professional has selected a company product based STRICTLY on the value added, then this act would be unethical. Such practices should merely attract the attention of the target, where the assessment should then be made based on medical criteria since at the end of the day this isn’t a fizzy drink or a candy bar.
This is all small talk and the least of any pharmaceutical company’s worries. The real trouble lies in corruption. Government officials especially this part of the world are very keen on getting kickbacks from Big Pharma, who not only have no problem in catering to such needs in exchange of a favourable position versus the competition, but such companies have allocated millions for that reason in particular. Of course, for such engagements to occur and everyone to be happy, these engagements take on a very sophisticated structure.
Let’s say for example, SR Pharmaceuticals would like to expand its market share in a specific country, one of the options would be to win a tender bid to provide government hospitals and clinics with a specific drug, but in order to procure such a position, SR would have to not only have a better product with proven efficacy, but would also have to provide it CHEAPER than the competition. But what if the Tender Committee awards the bid to SR, without justification?
What if the head of the committee actually is a silent shareholder in a market research company, the clients of which, would include pharmaceutical companies.
What if the bidder uses this market research company for the purposes of the tender in order to better understand the market it is serving? And of course would have to pay that company certain “consultancy fees?”
But then a legitimate question that would be asked by a compliance officer is: “ Do we really need market research to supply the government with painkillers? And if we do, do we really need to pay them 35,000 Dollars a month?”
If we also do need to do that as well, is it necessary to pay these fees to a bank account in the favor of that company’s lawyer in the Cayman Islands?
In order to answer the said questions, I met up with the Commercial Manager for Intercontinental Operations based in Zurich. His name is Alfred Braun.
Braun has been in service of the company for over 35 years, he was there since the cold war. He is Swiss of German origin, and very little is known of his past, prior to joining Phizing. A lot of people below him, seem to be making it to places above him, and he is very close to retirement. His not so brief tenure in that function has also given him unlimited access to secretly held info. Not only that, but has given him a say in the decision making process of the sensitive and not so sensitive matters.
All of the Company’s Intercontinental Operations pour back into Zurich in one way or another, so any dirt there would eventually be okayed by this old frail yet incredibly alert man. This man was isolated, lonely and about to be sent out into the cold…for good. We met in Zurich under the premise of regular work in early 2006, where joint smoking breaks, a small souvenir from the middle east and small talk eventually led to dinner and drinks at a downtown bistro during my trip. I also touched base during that trip with a discreet arms dealer based in Geneva, his name is Amir Nassif.
After Dinner and Drinks with Braun, Braun shared with me a few instances where the company did things I am sure they wouldn’t be keen on sharing with the public or even myself, one of which was a specific manager we have in Russia, handling our tenders in some of the “Stans”(Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, etc…) who has consistently favored a key opinion leader in Oncology ( Cancer) as a consultant to the company’s tenders in one of the Stans. It’s okay, the guy can be good. The problem is, he is also consultant to the Russian Health Minister and has a desk at the ministry. He received consistent monthly payments from Phizing averaging 5,000 Dollars a time, for the past 3 years. Such payments should have been okayed by the compliance department since the guy serves an official government post, even if he is merely a consultant to the ministry.
What makes this all the more interesting is how corrupt the system in Russia is, since a few weeks later I head on to Moscow, meet that opinion leader, who has an office adjacent to the minister himself. I explained the situation when he interrupted me saying that he is not a government official and has no affiliation whatsoever with the Russian Ministry of Health.
I asked him if he can provide that in writing.
The following day I find a package delivered to me at the lobby of the hotel I am staying in. In that package is a letter from the Russian Ministry of Health, signed and sealed by the Ministers office saying that Yuri Popov has nothing to do with the Ministry, and no affiliation whatsoever on both official and unofficial levels.
Funny them Russians. They tell you to go fuck off, and we help you get your way, so don’t try to be a moralist when you also are moved by the bottom line.
Braun and I later met in Paris, that was the last time I saw him for he crashed his rented car a year later in New Jersey.
Back to Amir Nassif….
Nassif is a very respected man in his community. His gentle and courteous demeanor always gave people the best he had.
Being a Christian in Europe was being like a native, he used that to his benefit and led a very incognito lifestyle to avoid tabloids back home. At the office by 8 am in bed by 10 pm. Rarely went out in the middle of the week, if he did it was for business reasons.
When I was in town, it was quite the exception, he made sure we had a good time. He had a set of cars in his garage that guaranteed that. One day it was the Scalgetti, the other it was the Bentley Azure, and in between was the S-class Benz modified by AMG. He warned me that my current client was up to no good, and told me of a compound they were trying to get FDA approval for that had the possibility of reversing the Oncogene growth process. Basically molecule SR-432-15-04 made cancer tumors shrink, and feed on themselves until they are no more.
What is so not good about that? Well, before coming up with that molecule, they did come up with 7 others…all of which cost too much to throw into the bin and have to be released, with a 10 year patent coming for each of them…that means we wont see this miracle cure on the market before 70 years time. Braun wanted to come clean with that, and that is why he is being distanced. I later found out that the car crash in Jersey came after Braun was rumored to be talking to the press..the NY times specifically.
Amir Gave me an offer I can’t refuse. Get the molecule, and he will give me 10% of what he would get when he sells it.
Not bad for someone my age, but it looks fishy, I will need a good reason to come up with the money, I will need a stable job, outside of the industry…
“Would you like to retire in the FMCG Business Howard?”
Like I said..T’was an offer I cant refuse…
My line of work exposes me to matters that the exposure thereof, would bring severe detriment to serious business players, of course confidentiality is a cornerstone of my work ethic, hence the names of persons, companies and events have been altered in order to preserve such confidentiality.
I was hired by a global pharmaceutical company called Sidley – Remington (SR), who were developing a drug that treats Anger. Since a lot of people could live a lot better with less anger with their lives, the company could make billions with such a breakthrough. SR Pharma is engaged into fierce head to head competition with another global company working on a similar compound. That company is called Phizing.
Phizing had a vacancy open for chief compliance officer for Middle East North Africa. Basically what a compliance officer does, is check that all the company’s dealings are done legally and ethically. Pharmaceutical companies spend a lot of money making sure their operations do not bring about negative exposure. Of course, for a compliance officer to do his job properly, he would have unlimited access to all company information. After securing that position, for being the most qualified candidate for that job, I began making inquiries into the company’s marketing practices in Dubai. Since Pharmaceutical companies are prohibited from advertising their products, marketing is quite different in this sector. It involves awareness programs and collaboration with patients to create brand equity. Some of these programs and collaborations create appeal by offering value added to the patients or health care professionals ( doctors, pharmacists, nurses etc…). Should it be found out that a patient of professional has selected a company product based STRICTLY on the value added, then this act would be unethical. Such practices should merely attract the attention of the target, where the assessment should then be made based on medical criteria since at the end of the day this isn’t a fizzy drink or a candy bar.
This is all small talk and the least of any pharmaceutical company’s worries. The real trouble lies in corruption. Government officials especially this part of the world are very keen on getting kickbacks from Big Pharma, who not only have no problem in catering to such needs in exchange of a favourable position versus the competition, but such companies have allocated millions for that reason in particular. Of course, for such engagements to occur and everyone to be happy, these engagements take on a very sophisticated structure.
Let’s say for example, SR Pharmaceuticals would like to expand its market share in a specific country, one of the options would be to win a tender bid to provide government hospitals and clinics with a specific drug, but in order to procure such a position, SR would have to not only have a better product with proven efficacy, but would also have to provide it CHEAPER than the competition. But what if the Tender Committee awards the bid to SR, without justification?
What if the head of the committee actually is a silent shareholder in a market research company, the clients of which, would include pharmaceutical companies.
What if the bidder uses this market research company for the purposes of the tender in order to better understand the market it is serving? And of course would have to pay that company certain “consultancy fees?”
But then a legitimate question that would be asked by a compliance officer is: “ Do we really need market research to supply the government with painkillers? And if we do, do we really need to pay them 35,000 Dollars a month?”
If we also do need to do that as well, is it necessary to pay these fees to a bank account in the favor of that company’s lawyer in the Cayman Islands?
In order to answer the said questions, I met up with the Commercial Manager for Intercontinental Operations based in Zurich. His name is Alfred Braun.
Braun has been in service of the company for over 35 years, he was there since the cold war. He is Swiss of German origin, and very little is known of his past, prior to joining Phizing. A lot of people below him, seem to be making it to places above him, and he is very close to retirement. His not so brief tenure in that function has also given him unlimited access to secretly held info. Not only that, but has given him a say in the decision making process of the sensitive and not so sensitive matters.
All of the Company’s Intercontinental Operations pour back into Zurich in one way or another, so any dirt there would eventually be okayed by this old frail yet incredibly alert man. This man was isolated, lonely and about to be sent out into the cold…for good. We met in Zurich under the premise of regular work in early 2006, where joint smoking breaks, a small souvenir from the middle east and small talk eventually led to dinner and drinks at a downtown bistro during my trip. I also touched base during that trip with a discreet arms dealer based in Geneva, his name is Amir Nassif.
After Dinner and Drinks with Braun, Braun shared with me a few instances where the company did things I am sure they wouldn’t be keen on sharing with the public or even myself, one of which was a specific manager we have in Russia, handling our tenders in some of the “Stans”(Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, etc…) who has consistently favored a key opinion leader in Oncology ( Cancer) as a consultant to the company’s tenders in one of the Stans. It’s okay, the guy can be good. The problem is, he is also consultant to the Russian Health Minister and has a desk at the ministry. He received consistent monthly payments from Phizing averaging 5,000 Dollars a time, for the past 3 years. Such payments should have been okayed by the compliance department since the guy serves an official government post, even if he is merely a consultant to the ministry.
What makes this all the more interesting is how corrupt the system in Russia is, since a few weeks later I head on to Moscow, meet that opinion leader, who has an office adjacent to the minister himself. I explained the situation when he interrupted me saying that he is not a government official and has no affiliation whatsoever with the Russian Ministry of Health.
I asked him if he can provide that in writing.
The following day I find a package delivered to me at the lobby of the hotel I am staying in. In that package is a letter from the Russian Ministry of Health, signed and sealed by the Ministers office saying that Yuri Popov has nothing to do with the Ministry, and no affiliation whatsoever on both official and unofficial levels.
Funny them Russians. They tell you to go fuck off, and we help you get your way, so don’t try to be a moralist when you also are moved by the bottom line.
Braun and I later met in Paris, that was the last time I saw him for he crashed his rented car a year later in New Jersey.
Back to Amir Nassif….
Nassif is a very respected man in his community. His gentle and courteous demeanor always gave people the best he had.
Being a Christian in Europe was being like a native, he used that to his benefit and led a very incognito lifestyle to avoid tabloids back home. At the office by 8 am in bed by 10 pm. Rarely went out in the middle of the week, if he did it was for business reasons.
When I was in town, it was quite the exception, he made sure we had a good time. He had a set of cars in his garage that guaranteed that. One day it was the Scalgetti, the other it was the Bentley Azure, and in between was the S-class Benz modified by AMG. He warned me that my current client was up to no good, and told me of a compound they were trying to get FDA approval for that had the possibility of reversing the Oncogene growth process. Basically molecule SR-432-15-04 made cancer tumors shrink, and feed on themselves until they are no more.
What is so not good about that? Well, before coming up with that molecule, they did come up with 7 others…all of which cost too much to throw into the bin and have to be released, with a 10 year patent coming for each of them…that means we wont see this miracle cure on the market before 70 years time. Braun wanted to come clean with that, and that is why he is being distanced. I later found out that the car crash in Jersey came after Braun was rumored to be talking to the press..the NY times specifically.
Amir Gave me an offer I can’t refuse. Get the molecule, and he will give me 10% of what he would get when he sells it.
Not bad for someone my age, but it looks fishy, I will need a good reason to come up with the money, I will need a stable job, outside of the industry…
“Would you like to retire in the FMCG Business Howard?”
Like I said..T’was an offer I cant refuse…
See You there
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