Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17678
Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.
Publication type: news
Fortado L
Ex-J&J Unit Executive Pleads Guilty to Bribery (Update1)
Bloomberg News 2010 Apr 14
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=amRg14sIWqhw
Full text:
A former executive at Johnson & Johnson’s U.K. unit, DePuy International, pleaded guilty to taking part in paying 4.5 million pounds ($7 million) in bribes to Greek doctors and was sentenced to a year in jail.
Robert John Dougall, 44, the former director of marketing at Leeds, England-based DePuy, admitted in a London court today to paying commissions in advance on sales made by Medec SA, a Greek distributor of the health care company’s orthopedic products. Some of the money was used to make “incentive payments” to persuade Greek surgeons to use DePuy’s products, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office said in a statement.
The incentives “were no more than euphemisms to make corrupt payments,” the SFO said. The money for the payments was sent to Madison Management Ltd., a company registered in the Isle of Man and owned by the parent of Medec.
The case is the first of part of a “major SFO corruption investigation,” the agency said. “The investigation into the roles and involvement of others is ongoing.”
Shaul Brazil, Dougall’s lawyer, declined to comment.
Dougall’s actions were contrary to the policies of New Brunswick, New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson, said Kate Purcell, a DePuy spokeswoman, in an e-mailed statement.
“Today’s proceeding in the U.K. arose from our voluntary disclosure in 2007 to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding improper payments,” Purcell said in the statement. “We continue to cooperate in that matter.”
Dougall, who cooperated with the probe, didn’t seek or gain any personal benefit from the payments, the SFO said. He was charged in December with conspiracy to corrupt.
“It is satisfying when corruption has been admitted, the offender co-operated and has been dealt with swiftly,” SFO Director Richard Alderman said in the statement.
