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Nov 01, 2024

Priya Bhambi of Brookline sentenced to prison for Takeda theft

A former senior-level employee at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company on Thursday was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison after admitting to embezzling $2.5 million and using the stolen money

A former senior-level employee at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company on Thursday was sentenced to nearly four years in federal prison after admitting to embezzling $2.5 million and using the stolen money to make a down payment on a condominium, place a deposit on a wedding venue, and buy an engagement ring and a luxury car, acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office said.

Priya Bhambi, 40, and her boyfriend at the time, Samuel N. Montronde, were arrested on Jan. 11, 2023, on allegations that they orchestrated and executed a scheme to defraud the multinational company.

Bhambi, who lives in Brookline, pleaded guilty in June in US District Court in Boston to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud.

At her sentencing hearing, US District Judge F. Dennis Saylor meted out a 46-month prison sentence to be followed by two years of supervised release. Saylor also ordered $2.5 million in restitution and forfeited Bhambi’s Mercedes-Benz Model E, a diamond ring, a Seaport condominium, a $49,985 wedding venue deposit, and more than $1 million traceable to her theft, Levy’s office said in a statetement.

Bhambi “egregious breach of trust” was driven by “pure greed,” Levy said in the statement.

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“The sentence sends two strong messages — first, there are very serious consequences for executives who exploit their positions to line their own pockets, and second, for companies who are victims of embezzlement, law enforcement stands ready to do whatever it can to recoup stolen funds and hold individuals accountable for fraud against their employers.”

“Fraud is never the answer,” FBI Special Agent Jodi Cohen said in the statement.

“Priya Bhambi apparently felt her nearly half-a-million-dollar salary at Takeda wasn’t enough, so she orchestrated a complex financial fraud scheme to steal millions more to enhance her paycheck,” said Cohen, who lead’s the FBI’s Boston office. “[Bhambi] will now pay for her crimes through restitution and prison time.”

Montronde is scheduled to go to trial on Dec. 2. He and Bhambi are no longer a couple.

According to a criminal complaint, in 2022, while Bhambi worked in the company’s technology operations group, she and Montronde formed a sham consulting company that they named Evoluzione Consulting LLC.

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Bhambi hatched the plan via text message in late January 2022, telling Montronde that the wheels were in motion for “a small hustle, lol ... I can’t be the face of it though.”

“Do some paperwork, open some accounts, decide on a brand, and come up with a name, was all there was to it,” she texted.

A week later they were fantasizing about their life as millionaires, according to text messages in the criminal complaint.

They incorporated the phony company in Brockton and designed a web page for it, complete with fabricated blog posts to make it seem like a legitimate business, prosecutors said.

Bhambi then coordinated the execution of a master services agreement between Takeda, whose US headquarters is in Cambridge, and Evoluzione. Takeda issued a $3.542 million purchase order for consulting services from the fake company, the complaint said.

Evoluzione later submitted five invoices in the amount of $460,000 for services that were not performed.

The company got suspicious but paid the invoices after questioning Bhambi, who explained away the issues, the complaint said.

Tonya Alanez can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @talanez.