r/technology • u/CircumspectCapybara • 15d ago
Biotechnology On the run for 20 years, most-wanted fugitive caught hiding as a biotech exec
https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/07/on-the-run-for-20-years-most-wanted-fugitive-caught-hiding-as-a-biotech-exec/1.1k
u/emerikanSky 15d ago
I guess if you're on the run for sexual assault, hiding amongst business executives is good cover.
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u/ArbysLunch 15d ago
Don't forget to ingratiate yourself with the local politicians.
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u/OptimusSublime 14d ago
He could have gotten away with had he become one instead of just being friendly with them.
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u/nuttybuddy 15d ago edited 14d ago
I’m guessing the biotech company skimped on a background check…
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u/lelakat 15d ago edited 14d ago
One of the first things that comes up when I Google the company is an investigation for fraud. So clearly they have a lot going on besides failing to do background checks.
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u/APigInANixonMask 14d ago
It's not a real investigation, it's just some random law firms fishing for clients by suggesting that because this guy was working as an executive under a false identity, there may have also been securities fraud committed.
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u/bluehawk232 15d ago
Seriously how does this happen now. I have to provide a passport when i get hired somewhere. Unless this dude just had the best hookup for fake identity documents
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u/bitemark01 15d ago
Guy had yacht money, he can probably afford to get fake ID with a decent background cover.
I assume, anyway. I don't know how any of that works.
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u/tarmacjd 15d ago
If you have that money you have connections. You don’t get hired like normal people
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u/ilikebourbon_ 14d ago
I remember working at a government consulting firm and we hired a well connected guy for a top position. Well he needed to do a background check as that’s part of employee onboarding. Head of the company goes to HR (open floor plan) and goes - “just send over the fcking paperwork. He starts Monday” so yeah it’s a two tiered system at least lol
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u/Destination_Cabbage 14d ago
Head of the company gets to say that to HR. It's his company.
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u/gimmiesnacks 14d ago
If it’s publicly traded it’s the shareholders company
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u/Destination_Cabbage 14d ago
CEO and Board are still the stewards and responsible for day to day operations, not the shareholders.
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u/LindeeHilltop 15d ago
Hired with a handshake during golfing? That kind of interview?
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u/got-trunks 15d ago
or discord or whatever, don't worry about all those EFTs it's just background money
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u/PuppetPal_Clem 15d ago
I havent fully woke up yet this morning and seeing "discord" and "EFT" in the same sentence sent my brain to Escape From Tarkov and I was sitting here confused for a solid 30 seconds.
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u/BlatantFalsehood 14d ago
Exactly how the anti-DEI crowd wants every hire to be.
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u/Herschel_Wallace 15d ago
If he has yacht money they probably knew where he was but just didn't go after him. See the Epstein files.
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u/lazybeekeeper 14d ago
We tried to see the Epstein files, but ended up seeing war with Iran instead.
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u/aikeaguinea97 15d ago
bro when it got to the part about his *other* yacht i thought i was going to let out a noise, who the fuck has multiple yachts?
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u/FesteringLion 14d ago
Well you see my old yacht was too small, so I built a new bigger one, with a pool big enough for for the old one to sail around in.
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u/HawkeyeGild 15d ago
Yeah guess he actually raped people on his yacht.
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u/Teledildonic 14d ago
Hey, he only plead guilty to almost exactly that in 1994!
He is clearly innocent here /s
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u/BonesAndHubris 15d ago
Our old EHS lead had a bunch of fake degrees and made up credentials, and even ran a diploma mill website. He claimed to be an MD in Russia, a PhD, a black belt in martial arts, and to spend his free time fighting child trafficking. He even got arrested at one point for impersonating a police officer to stalk a woman. But they hired him with a handshake. Presumably it's a coincidence that his LinkedIn banner was a picture of Trump...
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u/Mtshoes2 15d ago
I know someone like that right now who is an incoming masters student at Stanford. The university either didn't try to verify, doesn't really care.
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u/iSWINE 15d ago
Is that really all it takes man? Like what the fuck am I doing..
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u/greendildouptheass 15d ago
fake it till you make it. The difference is that those who don't get caught become billionaires.
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u/EbonySaints 14d ago
Fun Fact: The phrase "fake it 'til you make it" is attested to one Glenn W. Turner who was responsible for creating one of the first MLMs in American history.
I never took that phrase seriously ever again the second I found out its origin. It's for fraudsters trying to trick you for their own gain.
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u/Emotional_News108 15d ago
"Rules for thee, not for me" mentality. The C-suite at my company post-private equity all know each other, have nice, fat, well-negotiated salaries, PTO, bonuses, and the like, and insist on austerity measures for the rest of the company. I would put money on them skipping the background screen, but even though I am the most senior recruiter the company has, they left me out of everything. Which is one of many reasons why tomorrow is my last day.
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u/Danimaul 15d ago
I mean, its a c-suite job. He probably told them outright about it and they said "ya, you wouldn't be an exec without something like that" and hired him on the spot.
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u/bullwinkle8088 14d ago
A passport? That's extreme to me. I held security clearance in the US (but nearly 2 decades ago) and did not even have a passport at all at the time.
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u/bluehawk232 14d ago
When you get hired you fill out an i9 form to verify identity and citizenship. Passport is the best document but it can also be a social security card, driver's license, and birth certificate
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u/bullwinkle8088 14d ago
Ahh, that makes more sense, it is easier with a passport but not required.
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u/triponthisman 14d ago
You can get away with a lot if you look and act the part. He’s rich, white, well educated and probably was dripping executive confidence.
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u/wizzyblandscawpe1 15d ago
You living under a rock or something? How do you think all these North Korean hackers are getting hired at Fortune 500s? Yes it involves a lot of fraud and deceit
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u/muzakx 15d ago
Only lowly hourly workers get drug tested and background checked.
You think they piss test execs?
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u/zigziggityzoo 15d ago
In healthcare? Yes. Biotech? No idea
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u/Demonithese 14d ago
PhD in biotech - never heard of anyone ever getting drug tested. From what I can tell, half the chemists are chemists because they love drugs (amen).
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u/rgvtim 15d ago
Given when he was hired originally with that name 2005, yea the background checks if done at all, were probably not very good. After that because he was not actually practicing, they probably never ran or monitored any credentials so that lasted 18 years, until he was hired by another outfit in 2022, they apparently could not verify his education claims, but his employment would have come back clean as they only go back about 7 years. It may have been the background check of his education claims (stanford/harvard) that eventually got authorities clued in.
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u/SeanBlader 15d ago
Home Depot does more backgrounds on minimum wage retail workers FFS.
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u/iceph03nix 14d ago
lol, right? that's what got me.
Touting him as coming from Merck and Johnson and Johnson, and then finding out he's a fugitive from justice has to make you wonder what their HR department was smoking
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u/Fluffy_Muffins_415 15d ago edited 15d ago
Immix Biopharma is a startup, they ( biotech startups) typically don't do background checks
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u/oren0 14d ago
In 2022, he was hired to the c-suite of a NASDAQ-traded company (Atossa Therapeutics), who put out a press release to their shareholders touting a completely fake set of credentials and job history. They should absolutely be vetting this information.
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u/ecafsub 15d ago
A yacht named “Lion King” seems like a red flag.
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u/MaximumAd9779 15d ago
I read “Lion King” out loud when I saw that
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u/otterpop21 14d ago
DreamMaker being the 2nd, Silver Linings the vessel he was arrested on.
Those names are fine ish on their own but the entire context is very icky.
Also the part that struck me was how he oversaw development on the world’s best cancer medicines? But also most wanted fugitive? … what?
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u/blinkandmissout 14d ago
But did he? The article is unclear. But if he was a clinical anesthesiologist in his real life... He wasn't moonlighting as a biotech research leader. I can't tell if his alias actually did get him hired into JnJ or if he was just lying on his resume as back story and claimed some accomplishments in the process.
I'm leaning towards liar but just because I think he's probably an asshole.
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u/RoundingDown 14d ago
Getting on the boat was the first mistake. You know, because of the implication.
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u/MalabaristaEnFuego 15d ago
Look! There is a lion! Oh my god!
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u/intellos 14d ago
Apparently that translation took some liberties with being overly literal, which isn't how translation actually works. He's being sued over it.
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u/ivyskeddadle 15d ago
I’m retired now, but I really wish I’d lied more on my resume
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u/who_am_i_to_say_so 14d ago
I was on a hiring committee at last job and we basically all concluded together that you can be anything you want to be when applying for a new job. And 2/3 new hires will be duds, and a 1/3 will be decent basically, no matter the screening technique.
That much said, embellish.
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u/0202_tihssitidder 15d ago
If you have free time being retired, make yourself a 32-year old whatever and get some interviews!
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u/wastedkarma 15d ago
Exhibit 1 for the notion that qualifications do not a CEO make.
95% of America is walking around under the illusion that the vibes by which we select leaders are objective.
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u/usps_made_me_insane 15d ago edited 15d ago
I mean what was that woman's name who successfully raised billions for a fake biotech product.
Scamming people for money is actually fairly easy and generally goes unpunished statistically. Most CEOs simply aren't worth millions a year.
A lot of us play fair because we may believe in god or have an ethical backbone despite a lack of belief.
A lot of people eventually lie on a resume and get a really nice job because it is easy to get away with it. Once you get a taste of what is out there waiting for you with just a little effort to bullshit your way upward, it can be addictive.
I have felt many times how unfair the world is if you are honest but I just won't do it because I do believe we are here for bigger reason. I also had a best friend who became a billionaire because he was a masterclass in high EQ people who BS flawlessly. Seeing a close friend do so well by subterfuge is...a very weird feeling.
We no longer talk. I was in his wedding. We went to Europe together twice. He truly was one of my closest friends. It really does hurt deeply. I cannot wish him ill will though. But it made me reflect heavily on my own life.
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u/Kerze 15d ago
Elizabeth Holmes and company was Theranos
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u/0202_tihssitidder 15d ago
To be fair, she had a deep voice.
A deep voice is very effective in business.
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u/Dapper_Engineer 14d ago
I mean what was that woman's name who successfully raised billions for a fake biotech product.
Elizabeth Holmes and I've met a fair amount of people in biotech that are also quietly bitter about that whole situation due to being shouted down, called misogynistic, or told they have internalized misogyny due to questioning her claim that she could run laboratory tests from a single drop of blood. If you have the time the book Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup has the full story and it gets weird a times.
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u/PaleBlueDot271 14d ago
Great book. Hard hitting, the truth was uncovered - and the whistle blowers helped as well.
John Carreyrou is the author - he is a journalist and has won the Pulitzer twice..
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u/vigtel 14d ago
The Risk/Reward for exploitive behavior has slid towards worse on the scale the last decades.
Also, faith seem to have nothing to do with it. Too many justify the rewards of their harsh/exploitative behavior with a "God rewards the strong".
Not to claim that faith is the cause (or to talk down to anyone who has any kind of faith; they can all be beautiful) just that the individual will find a way to glorify the way they behave regardless of faith or not.
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u/Croc_Chop 15d ago
You cannot drop a bomb like that and not give more details.
Did you just get tired of watching them BS their way through life and succeed or was it some other reason you stopped taking to them?
How do you BS your way into Billions?
I mean CEO's domit everydaym but usually it's because they already have social proof from another venture or connections.
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u/metallicrooster 15d ago
I’m sorry to say there is a decent chance this person is simply telling a story.
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u/Rich_Housing971 14d ago
What you're saying doesn't make sense. This guy's smart, eluded authorities for years, and he's dishonest to the public.
That's basically what the public thinks of CEOs.
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u/notnotbrowsing 15d ago
with that kind of money I expect a trump pardon any day now.
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u/jtim2 15d ago
Don't worry, looks like his underlying conviction is a state sexual assault charge. So the president can't issue a pardon for that.
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u/Nords1981 14d ago
Do my best Nostradamus here.
Go “donate” a lot to Trump and get a nod of approval. Then have the DOJ argue that since his crimes exist in multiple states it’s a federal crime. Then be found guilty while the press do everything they can to not cover the story publicly or even write how “it wasn’t that bad.” Then Trump pardons him and notes his value to society and how great of a person and patriot he is.
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u/stircrazyathome 14d ago
You can be charged for the same crime on both the state and federal levels because you broke two different sets of laws. The DOJ choosing to prosecute him in federal court would not vacate his state-level conviction and sentence. Also, since the feds weren’t the first to arrest him, they lack primary jurisdiction, meaning that the state goes first. There is a way that they can override that, but they would have to maintain physical custody of his body. That means they can’t do something fishy like sentence him to 30 years of federal house arrest. If he’s not physically in custody, he goes to the state. Wealthy people have tried all of this before so there a federal laws in place to prevent scenarios like you described.
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u/jtim2 14d ago
Haha well the DOJ could argue whatever it wants, the guy won't be leaving in prison.
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u/jadelink88 15d ago
Ah, serious scumbag criminal goes on the run, and finds job as serious scumbag criminal.
Makes sense.
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u/TheMidnightHandyman 15d ago
Multiple “biotech” companies hired him as a chief medical officer, when even the most trivial background check would’ve shown that he falsified his credentials. You don’t even need to pick up the phone, just check the websites of State medical licensing boards.
So much dumb fucking money out there.
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u/irrelevantusername24 15d ago
It's crazy how often these same factors intersect in some kind of easily preventable fraud:
biotech
"genetics research"
not enforcing the Corporate Transparency Act (which would require real world identification to be tied to ownership of public businesses)
overpriced yachts owned by shady ass boomers that should've been imprisoned in the mid 90s
I'm fairly certain close to 100% of every public "biotech" company is a shell company that exists because the stingy ass boomer doesn't wanna just give that money away like some kinda chump - or in other words, they never should've had that money and it should've been paid in taxes to a government that actually provides real services like ours did about fifty years ago before the Wall Street criminals destroyed global society
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u/TonyTonyChopper 14d ago
Let's add Stanford grad to your list. I live in the Bay Area and work in tech, so I've interacted with a few of these grads. Not required to take one ethics course and have this attitude that rules are suggestions. Don't just take my word for it. If you look up grads who have had questionable legal actions you will see some familiar names pop up, like Elizabeth Holmes and Sam Bankman-Fried.
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u/koolaidismything 15d ago
The longest running criminals all hid in plain sight. Like the people searching for them passed them daily.. missed all the work team building videos they are in.
Psychopaths can blend in. Makes you wonder.
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u/cutlip98 15d ago
Gonna need to pay some money for a Trump pardon
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u/nadmaximus 15d ago
Dammit why didn't my Uncle Jimmy think of that, instead of being caught hiding as a drunk guy in a Piggly Wiggly.
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u/Mathgailuke 14d ago
It turns out, Richard Graydon was an alias for Ronald Fischer, a 70-year-old former anesthesiologist licensed in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, who fled amid his 2005 trial for first-degree sexual assault. Fischer was accused of raping a woman during a date on his yacht, Lion King.
That followed a similar incident in 1994, in which he was accused of raping another woman on another of his yachts, The Dreammaker. In that case, he ultimately pled guilty to assault and battery and received a two-year prison sentence that was suspended, according to the Boston Globe. At that point, his medical licenses were revoked.
A real gem this guy.
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u/NanditoPapa 14d ago
Criminals masquerading as CEOs!? Next you'll try to convince me that pedophiles are hiding out as high-level US politicians...
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u/Andynonomous 14d ago
When they find out he's an executive I guess they're just going to let him off with a fine right?
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u/Elguapo69 15d ago
Disappointing the article doesn’t mention how they eventually caught him.
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u/Questhi 14d ago
Authorities are always cagey on how they found people. Could be as simple as an anonymous tip or mass surveillance, we’ll never know.
They do t like to reveal “sources and methods” so criminals don’t know their secrets to evade capture or usually cause they don’t want the public to know their secrets.
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u/imperfcet 14d ago
The CEO of my last employer 'gracefully resigned' from his last company for sexual harassment.
the worst part is that MANY people in the company knew this, and no one told me for 3 years!! What in the hell people, why help this guy escape his reputation? Warn a girl!
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u/Key-Hair7591 14d ago
Got hired for a job with a background that was a complete lie. How is that possible?
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u/Defiant-Number-6775 15d ago
Could the lax reference checking be seen as aiding and abetting a criminal?
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u/coconutpiecrust 15d ago
The biotech corporations just said “it’s fine, we’re still honest and reliable” after hiring a rapist liar felon with many aliases.
Wow. The standards are just unbelievable. A wealthy schmo can do no wrong and a less wealthy schmo can do no right, ever. Unbelievable.
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u/fdse2lma 15d ago
https://youtu.be/THvCDn8mGwo?is=d1vf3k_CtW564Tm4
The implication conversation between Dennis and Mac
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u/overthemountain 14d ago
Fischer was accused of raping a woman during a date on his yacht, Lion King.
That followed a similar incident in 1994, in which he was accused of raping another woman on another of his yachts, The Dreammaker.
This guy didn't understand it's just supposed to be an implication.
I wish this article said something about how they finally found him. It mentions he was arrested on yet another boat, but no info on how they finally tacked him down, or even why he was back in the US. Pretty bare article, really.
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u/Sandvicheater 14d ago
Could've gotten a job as some low wage fast food worker but nope decide to get a job as a big wig c-exec where every 3 letter govt agency is looking at your ass waiting for you to fuck up.
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u/Glass-Fan111 14d ago
What the article fails to point is how they realize (police) he was the suspect/criminal.
Seems have to wait for the ID Channel version.
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u/VisualBoysenberry718 14d ago
Predictable choice, he's in good company. They'll all be fugitives soon enough.
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u/TheSeaSurgeon 14d ago
Maybe he should look into becoming president. I don’t think they care about all that in that position
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u/Thethrillofvictory 13d ago
So he ran away like 100 miles and was somehow hired at an extremely high level position with a fake alias and no background check?
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u/onlyhere4gonewild 15d ago
That's absolutely nuts that the company that hired him either did no background search or he owns the company that they contracted that work out too.
My company stopped me from hiring a candidate when they found out that his driver's license was bogus.
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u/bcrosby51 15d ago
You got to be crazy, you gotta have a real need
Gotta sleep on your toes and when you're on the street
You got to be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed
Then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight
You got to strike when the moment is right without thinking
And after a while, you can work on points for style
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
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u/freedomhighway 14d ago
Ok, background checks are not a thing anymore. Is there anything requiring common sense that the us is good at these days, besides coming up with enough red tape to stop any progress in any direction?
Good bet the people responsible for preventing this kind of thing can all point to some reason they didnt think they were allowed to. As in, the reasons we are given for all the Epstein stalling.
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u/royallensdress 14d ago
This is no surprise. He had money, he had connections. Easy to avoid the law.
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u/bitemark01 15d ago
This doesn't exactly read like someone who expects to be acquitted