Brockton Man Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Defrauding Pharmaceutical Company Takeda of $2.3 Million

BOSTON — The boyfriend of a senior level employee at the multinational pharmaceutical company Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) was sentenced in federal court in Boston for setting up a fake consulting company that billed Takeda for services it never actually provided.

Samuel N. Montronde, 39, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV to 30 months in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release. Montronde was also ordered to pay $2.3 million in restitution. In December 2024, Montronde was convicted of three counts of wire fraud by a federal jury in Boston. The jury acquitted Montronde of one count of wire fraud conspiracy. Montronde was arrested and charged in January 2023 along with his girlfriend Priya Bhambi – a former senior employee in the technology operations group of Takeda. The two were later indicted by a federal grand jury in January 2023.

In 2022, Montronde and Bhambi orchestrated and executed a scheme to defraud Takeda of at least $2.3 million in payments for purported consulting services by submitting fabricated invoices on behalf of a sham consulting company. Bhambi had previously engaged in the same fraud using a different sham consulting company, resulting in payments from Takeda totaling nearly $300,000 for consulting services that were never provided.

In February 2022, Montronde and Bhambi incorporated a sham consulting company, Evoluzione Consulting LLC (Evoluzione). Later, Bhambi created a website for Evoluzione with false information, including fabricated blog posts, to make it appear that Evoluzione was a legitimate consulting business.

After incorporating Evoluzione, Bhambi, in coordination with Montronde, submitted a statement of work to Takeda and caused Takeda to sign a master services agreement with Evoluzione and issue a purchase order to Evoluzione for consulting services with a total cost of $3.542 million. Then, between March and May of 2022, Bhambi and Montronde fabricated and submitted five separate invoices to Takeda for services that Evoluzione had not performed, each in the amount of $460,000. The defendants also created a fictional employee “Jasmine” to handle communications with Takeda. When questioned by Takeda employees, Bhambi made false representations regarding the services purportedly provided by Evoluzione. Before discovering the scheme and terminating Bhambi, Takeda, relying on these false representations, paid all five of the invoices to business accounts opened by Montronde in the name of Evoluzione.

In June 2024, Bhambi pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and three counts of wire fraud. In October 2024, she was sentenced to 46 months in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release. Bhambi was also ordered to pay $2,585,480 in restitution.

In total, Bhambi and Montronde defrauded Takeda of $2.3 million in payments to Evoluzione for services not provided. The couple used the fraudulently obtained funds to purchase a Mercedes-Benz Model Class E, a diamond engagement ring, freightliner trucks, a $1.9-million 2-bedroom condo in Boston’s Seaport District and a $50,000 wedding venue deposit. These assets are now subject to the Court’s forfeiture order.

United States Attorney Leah B. Foley and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Takeda provided valuable assistance and cooperation with the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Leslie A. Wright and Mackenzie A. Queenin of the Criminal Division prosecuted the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Carol E. Head, Chief of the Asset Recovery Unit is handling the forfeiture matter.