this story originally appeared in on oct 11 2012 mumbai us drinks giant beam inc makers of jim beam bourbon and teachers scotch whisky has initiated investigations into whistleblower allegations of financial misdemeanours at its india unit said people familiar with the matter the worlds fourth largest premium spirits company has asked the local senior management including managing director harish moolchandani to keep away from work pending investigations they added the development closely tracks move by adidas group to fire the top brass of reebok india citing financial irregularities sources said investigations cover possible violations of foreign corrupt practices act in the us as mnc subsidiaries in key emerging market economies face the heat of tougher anticorruption rules and rising instances of whistleblowers the nyselisted beam has a fullyowned local subsidiary and its teachers brand is the largest selling scotch here the list of misdemeanours being investigated include excise duty violations invoicing problems and handing over distribution in some key markets to relatives of the top brass sources said beam india md harish moolchandani did not respond to repeated calls and text messages beam spokesman clarkson hine said based on a routine internal audit of operations in india we are taking a closer look at the actions of certain individuals and practices in the india business one of the sources mentioned above said senior asia pacific executives have been given interim charge of the india operations top executives in sales and finance departments as well as some regional sales heads were being probed said one of the sources mentioned earlier moolchandani and his team at beam ran one of the most profitable spirits companies in the country with profit margins topping 20 the top brass built a lifestyle drinks portfolio of about 6 lakh cases annually riding on the back of teachers which retained leadership in the face of stiff competition from other standard scotch whiskies india sales accounted for more than 25 of the global volume of teachers brand the india unit forms part of beams asia pacificsouth america geography which accounts for 22 of its total revenue of 23 billion industry watchers said the latest developments at the local unit might be extremely sensitive to illinoisbased beam which has on board activist shareholder bill ackman these developments in a key growth market carry significance for the global management from a strategic point of view said one observer who did not wish to be named ackmanled shareholders took fortune brands through a restructuring which saw the creation of beam inc as a standalone wine and spirits company which has been rumoured to be an ma target last year rival diageo paid 16 million as fines to settle bribery charges at some of its asian operations including india