Commercial debt collection scam using the names Ugo Grondelli and Alteco Medical
Date First Reported: July 2014
Primary Name Associated: Ugo Grondelli
Description of Potential Fraud:
[Updated Sept 2014]
Nearly 30 lawyers in Ontario and the U.S. have notified us that they received an email from the purported Ugo Grondelli of Alteco Medical looking to retain them with regards to a commercial debt collection.
This is a classic bad cheque scam that presents as legal matter requiring the assistance of a lawyer. In this scam lawyers will be duped into wiring real funds from their trust accounts after depositing a fake cheque received as payment from the debtor (who is part of the fraud). See our Confirmed Fraud Page for more of an explanation of how these frauds work and to see other names associated with it. Our Fraud Fact Sheet lists the red flags of a bogus legal matter that is really a fraud.
Here is the initial email sent by the fraudster to the lawyer:
From: Ugo Grondelli [mailto: [email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2014 6:21 AM
To:
Subject: Breach Of Contract
Our company is soliciting for legal assistance (Attorney) to handle a
breach of contract case,either through negotiation or litigation. Yours
Sincerely, Ugo Grondelli Board Member. Alteco Medical AB
www.altecomedical.com
Replying to the email brought this response:
First, as a way of introduction, I’m Ugo Grondelli Senior Board Member of Alteco Medical AB in Lund Sweden. We are Swedish medical device company focusing on intensive care.
We would like to thank you for your response to our inquiry for your firm’s legal services. However, I wish to inform you that we would need your firm’s legal service to assist us with a breach of contract case and also in helping our firm retrieving funds owed by a firm ( Praxair ) in your country (USA). The contract of sales was signed on the 13th of February 2014 between our firm (Alteco Medical AB) and ( Praxair ); these items were supposed to be delivered to us on the 17th of February but due to delay in producing some of the Items, Praxair extended the delivery date to the 7th of March 2014 which was agreed by our firm and also insisted that will be the deadline since payment has been remitted as requested; but the extended delivery date was not honored by Praxair.
We ordered goods from Praxair, and we were asked to remit 50% deposit for the goods to be delivered to us which we did, but up till date these goods were never delivered. We have asked for a refund but Praxair has refused to honor our request. The amount in dispute is $633,567.60 which was partial payment we remitted for the medical Items that was supposed to be delivered to us.
Despite the on foregoing issue with the firm, I will like to draw your attention to our previous relationship with the firm which has been successful in recent years, and it is our position to maintain the relationship after settling the current issue we have with the firm. Right now, we would want to take the appropriate step and measures to enforce our rights on the agreement and claim damages as appropriate. We request a 10% interest from the total amount owed by Praxair.
If your firm is retained, we would want your firm to take the first approach by serving a letter to Praxair and see if that will trigger any action towards the request for our refund.
We believe serving a letter to Praxair on our behalf will trigger the much needed response from the firm towards amicable settlement otherwise we will not hesitate to go into court litigation. We are prepared to retain the service of a legal firm to help us resolve our current dispute. We want Litigation to be introduced as a last resort when options have been exhausted. We look forward to your prompt response.
Please see below contact information of Praxair we ordered our Items from for verification.
PRAXAIR
4051 County Rd
Windsor, ON N9A 6J3
Yours Sincerely,
Ugo Grondelli
Board Member.
Alteco Medical AB
Höstbruksvägen 8
SE-226 60 Lund
Sweden
Tel: +468-559-16269
www.altecomedical.com
How to handle a real or suspected fraud
If you have been targeted by any of these frauds, please forward any of the emails and supporting documents that you have received to [email protected].
If you suspect you are acting on a matter that might be a fraud, call LAWPRO at 1-800-410-1013 (416-598-5899). We will talk you through the common fraud scenarios we are seeing and help you spot red flags that may indicate you are being duped. This will help you ask appropriate questions of your client to determine if the matter is legitimate or not. If the matter you are acting on turns out to be a fraud and there is a potential claim, we will work with you to prevent the fraud and minimize potential claims costs.
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July 31, 2014 at 5:39 pm, Bruce Spence said:
We have also received the same type of inquiry as follows;
Our company is soliciting for legal assistance (Attorney) to handle a breach of contract case,either through negotiation or litigation. Yours Sincerely, Ugo Grondelli Board Member. Alteco Medical AB www.altecomedical.com
While we have worked with Swedish Companies on their contract litigation matters in the recent past, this seems more a fishing expedition that serious inquiry.
August 11, 2014 at 11:18 am, Douglas Graham said:
On July 3 I received the same inquiry, literally, even down to the run-on words “case,either”.
Mr. Grondelli was in a hurry to get this out, I guess – didn’t notice that his actual email address is “[email protected]”, (not “Grondelli”). That may be the reason he referred me to “Jonas Jonmark”, Alteco’s “president”, for further communication.
But the check he sends is a purported cashier’s check from Chase Bank that’s really a work of art in its own right. Watermarks and everything. Looks great on my office wall.
Doug Graham
August 13, 2014 at 10:36 am, Greg Lisi said:
We received one too, this time from a LinkedIn inquiry from “Jonas Jonmark”, but the signature block on the e-mail says:
Ugo Grondelli
Board Member.
Alteco Medical AB
Email : [email protected]
www.altecomedical.com
Be careful.
August 26, 2014 at 2:51 pm, Eugene said:
just got this same exact thing as Greg thru Linked In. Yikes.
August 27, 2014 at 9:04 pm, Brian Sims said:
Just got the exact same e-mail. San Francisco Bay Area.
September 10, 2014 at 5:55 pm, James said:
Received similar email today. Northwestern Wisconsin.
September 10, 2014 at 5:56 pm, James said:
They must like me, I received a second identical email as well. Northwestern Wisconsin
September 11, 2014 at 10:03 am, Jenny said:
Received “We were referred to your firm by A member of American Bar Association. We are inquiring for an Attorney who specializes in Breach of Contract or Litigation. Ugo Grondelli Board Member. Alteco Medical AB www.altecomedical.com”
September 17, 2014 at 6:15 pm, TheodoreF.Zentner said:
Attn: Theodore F. Zentner
First, as a way of introduction, I’m Ugo Grondelli Senior Board Member of Alteco Medical AB in Lund Sweden. We are Swedish medical device company focusing on intensive care.
We would like to thank you for your response to our inquiry for your firm’s legal services. However, I wish to inform you that we would need your firm’s legal service to assist us with a breach of contract case and also in helping our firm retrieving funds owed by a firm ( Praxair ) in your country (USA). The contract of sales was signed on the 13th of February 2014 between our firm (Alteco Medical AB) and ( Praxair ); these items were supposed to be delivered to us on the 17th of February but due to delay in producing some of the Items, Praxair extended the delivery date to the 7th of March 2014 which was agreed by our firm and also insisted that will be the deadline since payment has been remitted as requested; but the extended delivery date was not honored by Praxair.
We ordered goods from Praxair, and we were asked to remit 50% deposit for the goods to be delivered to us which we did, but up till date these goods were never delivered. We have asked for a refund but Praxair has refused to honor our request. The amount in dispute is $633,567.60 which was partial payment we remitted for the medical Items that was supposed to be delivered to us.
Despite the on foregoing issue with the firm, I will like to draw your attention to our previous relationship with the firm which has been successful in recent years, and it is our position to maintain the relationship after settling the current issue we have with the firm. Right now, we would want to take the appropriate step and measures to enforce our rights on the agreement and claim damages as appropriate. We request a 10% interest from the total amount owed by Praxair.
If your firm is retained, we would want your firm to take the first approach by serving a letter to Praxair and see if that will trigger any action towards the request for our refund.
We believe serving a letter to Praxair on our behalf will trigger the much needed response from the firm towards amicable settlement otherwise we will not hesitate to go into court litigation. We are prepared to retain the service of a legal firm to help us resolve our current dispute. We want Litigation to be introduced as a last resort when options have been exhausted. We look forward to your prompt response.
Please see below contact information of Praxair we ordered our Items from for verification.
PRAXAIR
2312 W. Beaver St
Jacksonville, FL 32209
Yours Sincerely,
Ugo Grondelli
Board Member.
Alteco Medical AB
Höstbruksvägen 8
SE-226 60 Lund
Sweden
Tel: +464-628-80592
www.altecomedical.com
September 23, 2014 at 6:07 pm, Wade H. said:
Ugo has now reached out to the Dallas-Fort Worth legal market:
“We were referred to your firm by A member of American Bar Association. We are inquiring for an Attorney who specializes in Breach of Contract or Litigation. Ugo Grondelli Board Member. Alteco Medical AB www.altecomedical.com “
October 10, 2014 at 7:05 pm, Chris McElwain said:
We got one too.
Looks to me like Alteco Medical is a real company (they have a trademark registration and everything) and Ugo Grondelli really is an officer. Too bad the email comes from “altcomedical.com”
Fun bonus fact: altcomedical is registered to someone named Irwin Paikoff ([email protected]) who has also registered the domain . . . wait for it . . . praxaircorp.com
November 14, 2014 at 2:19 pm, Ray Beckerman said:
I received one involving Praxair, from an “Ashford Riku” of Biohit Healthcare in Helsinki Finland. I responded to it and received the following followup:
*******************************************************
We appreciate you for taking out time to respond to our inquire for legal representation. We will be needing your firms legal assistant in a breach of contract matter and also to retrieve funds owed to our company. We signed a contract of sale on the 11th June 2014 with PRAXAIR [SELLER]. Praxair was suppose to deliver our order to us the buyer on or before 1st July 2014.
However, PRAXAIR delivered some of the product to us on the 1st July 2014 and promised to have the balance product delivered to us within 2weeks, because they had issues in the manufacturing of the balance product. The deadline date for the balance delivery was extended to 16th July 2014 as requested by PRAXAIR.
Quite unfortunately, the extended deadline was not honoured.
We ordered medical supplies from PRAXAIR, the total contract sum of $1,711.139 was paid in full for the goods to be delivered to us. Parts of the products we order were delivered leaving a balance goods worth $933,391 undelivered. We reminded them that the time frame for delivery has elapsed, we also made them to understand that we have ran out of patience and want the balance money refunded.
Till date, we have neither gotten the balance order nor received balance money.
We tried to be reasonable and resolve this issue amicably but our entire plea has landed on deaf ears. We have decided to put an end to it finally. We know we cannot do this alone again, which is why we need a reputable attorney like you to step in to recover the balance money.
We had a cordial and successful business relationship with PRAXAIR over the years.
If retained our expectation from your firm will be within the scenario of an engagement letter to our client. We believe this will trigger a positive response from them towards amicable settlement otherwise we will not hesitate to go into court litigation. We are prepared to pay your retainer fees and any other fees incurred during the course of this matter.
PRAXAIR ADDRESS
542 Route 303 Orangeburg, NY 10962
We look forward to your prompt response and you may send your retainer document as well.
Yours Sincerely,
Ashford Riku * Global Diversity Director Biohit Healthcare*Laippatie 1*00880 Helsinki*Finland
Tel: +358 9 231 61063*Fax: +358 9 413 58201 www.biohihealthcare.com
November 19, 2014 at 1:55 pm, Jefre S. Goldtrap said:
Thank you for your forum. I too received a letter from the good doctor. Wow! I thought I was the only one; I thought I was special; he even promised to still love me in the morning 🙂
I was amazed that I was referred to him via the American Bar Association of which I am not a member and this is not my area of expertise. Other than that … 🙂
Thanks for the forum and I will keep this site bookmarked for future scams.
Jefre S. Goldtrap
Nashville, TN
November 20, 2014 at 3:00 pm, R. Marion said:
I received the same one as Mr. Beckerman, and when I demanded documentation, he gave a full set of deal documents with huge red flags in them, such as the defendant agreeing to the debt, exact to the penny. Further, I check the domain he emailed from using who.is, and found it was only registered a month ago or so, long after the emails were sent.
I sent him a formal note declining representation.
Caveat Esquire
December 09, 2014 at 3:35 pm, MET said:
I just received the email described above and found it suspicious since I am not a member of the American Bar Assn. He is obviously still at it but curiously the amount owed by Praxair has gone done and there is no mention of paying us any retainer fee.
December 12, 2014 at 12:52 pm, Douglas Graham said:
Say hello to Ugo for me. I have one of his checks on my wall display.
Douglas Graham, Chicago
December 22, 2014 at 9:04 am, Bryan M. said:
Thanks for the information!
July 08, 2015 at 10:14 am, Stewart C said:
I just received a similar letter on about a commercial dredge machine sale. Looked fishy from the getgo. Who retains an attorney they have not met with e-mail