UAF Rubber-Stamped Accreditation for CB to Operate in 93 Different Countries

A-Mark Ratings Ltd. operates out of the “Jyoti Cineplex” in Bhopal, but its certifications — including for critical services such as medical device manufacturing — include an address at Labyrinth Business Centre in Cheshire UK. That site isn’t included at all on the UAF accreditation granted to A-Mark.

UAF went further, though, and then accredited A-Mark to operate in a whopping 93 additional countries. All this despite the fact that A-Mark appears to be run by three people out of an office above a movie theater in India.

In the image below, you can see the official listing for A-Mark from the UAF website as of 18 November 2024. Notice the list of “other locations” is blank, and only the movie theater address is included. Then, however, UAF adds a list of over 90 countries that are magically included in the scope of accreditation despite none of them being listed as “other locations.”

IAF mandatory documents require accreditation bodies like UAF to perform actual audits on the locations where a CB operates. It allows the AB to “sample” these sites, but eventually, all such sites must get an audit by UAF. But bodies like UAF are ignoring this, relying on the fact that the pertinent IAF mandatory documents include textual errors that the IAF has refused to correct for years. Because of the errors, the IAF “MDs” are in limbo, and the IAF has not stopped the practice of ABs “rubber-stamping” accreditation. Because of this, a one-person AB can now be accredited in every country in the world without ever having any of its other sites subject to any ISO 17021-1 assessments.

Parveen Sadana, the head of UAF, worked behind the scenes with IAF regional body head Graeme Drake to gain entry into the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC). Drake refused to process complaints against UAF while its membership was pending, then approved them for full APAC membership anyway. That, then, brought UAF under full IAF membership. The IAF has refused to investigate whether Sadana bribed Drake for this membership and has allowed UAF to issue what appear to be fake certificates throughout India and other countries.

Sadana claims that UAF is a US-based “not-for-profit” organization but has never filed public tax releases as required under US law. It appears he has never paid any US taxes at all, despite having dozens of clients running through his business’ Delaware address. Of course, Sadana operates out of India, but under US law, he is still required to pay US taxes since his company is registered here. We filed a complaint back in May over this, but Sadana never responded, and Drake likewise ignored the issue, saying it wasn’t filed on the correct paperwork. The IAF has refused to take action, even though it appears they are facilitating felony tax fraud by Sadana.

I’ve filed a new complaint against UAF related to the A-Mark scams, but it’s equally unlikely to get any traction. Sadana and UAF are protected by Drake, and to date, Victor Gandy and the IAF have refused to take action against Drake or APAC, so long as he keeps scooping up ABs to include in the membership roster. Every AB that Drake recruits eventually feeds revenue into both APAC and IAF, as well as Drake’s pocket.

Just pause on that for a moment: a CB offering certification for the manufacturing of medical devices has what appears to be a wholly fake accreditation, issued because of a financial relationship between the AB and its oversight body (APAC), and is allowed to certify anyone it wants in over ninety countries, all while the IAF insists that this is legitimate.

How many people are going to die because of defective products made under the ISO 13485 certificates issued by A-Mark or other bodies engaging in this practice?