Owner of pharma distribution business says life-savings decimated by alleged 600,000 fraud plot

A 63-year-old owner of Dublin-based Beacon Pharmaceutical Ltd claimed that his life savings were reduced by an alleged €600,000 fraud by a former financial and office administrator. The administrator, Fan Yang, was accused of making unauthorised transfers from the company account to her own account and to an account of Chin-Mara Trading Co Ltd, which she set up with her partner. An interim ex parte order froze assets below about €587,000, and the court heard about €74,000 had already been repaid. The owner said Yang worked full-time from 2014, later offered services after seeking redundancy, and had been involved in citizenship and apartment negotiations. Allegations included payments to property-rental companies and unexpected shipments of goods to the warehouse that were not ordered by the company.

"Mark Cullen, who owns Dublin-based Beacon Pharmaceutical Ltd, says Fan Yang, of the Cubes 8, Beacon South Quarter, Sandyford, Dublin, stole more than €600,000 from the business primarily by making unauthorised transfers from the company's account to her own account and to an account of a company called Chin-Mara Trading Co Ltd which she had set up with her partner Wenpin Weng."

"Mr Justice John Jordan granted Mr Cullen an interim ex parte (plaintiff side only represented) order freezing Ms Yang's and Chin-Mara's assets below some €587,000. The court heard she has already paid back some €74,000."

"In an affidavit, Mr Cullen said that from 2014, Ms Yang was his full-time administrator. She asked to be made redundant in 2019 and from then on offered her services to the company free and later provided them on an ad hoc basis. Mr Cullen said while he found this confusing and lacking in sense, he had assisted her in her successful application to become an Irish citizen and also helped her in negotiating the cost of the purchase of an apartment."

"The Chin-Mara company was initially set up to export shell fish and had no cross-over with his business. Part of the alleged fraud involved the payments totalling more than €91,000, from Beacon Pharmaceutical's account to companies renting properties in Galway operating gadget stores called Han.One method of fraud was discovered when a container of goods, including e-bikes, toys and Christmas decorations, arrived at Beacon Pharmaceutical's warehouse around late 2022-early 2023. This had not been ordered by the company and was one of nine such containers to arrive between 2022 and 2025, Mr Cullen said."

Read at Irish Independent