Here’s a strange one: a medical device salesman from Ethicon Endosurgery was recently sentenced to 6 months in prison (minimum security, no doubt) and six months of house arrest for an elaborate scheme involving theft and trafficking of leftover medical devices from New York to South Florida…
According to court records and statements at the hearing, from approximately December 1998 through February 2004, [Alan] Schmidt participated in a conspiracy with other individuals in the New York and South Florida area, who were sales representatives of the medical device manufacturer Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Through their respective employment, Schmidt and his coconspirators acquired significant quantities of medical devices for re-sale, without authorization form Ethicon or the hospitals to which the devices were originally sold. It was part of the conspiracy that Schmidt and other coconspirators would forward the devices to one of the New York area participants, who would consolidate and ship the equipment to a Delray Beach, Florida-based “fence.” The fence would pay 10% to 30% of the market value of the devices to the New York-based “coordinator,” who would divide up the payments among the group, including payments to Schmidt. Schmidt and the other suppliers received their shares in the form of checks drawn on a corporation established as a front by the spouse of the New York coordinator. The conspirators acquired the devices by a variety of means, including as samples ostensibly for business-development, trade-outs of newer models for older devices from customers, and by direct theft from their customer hospitals and surgical facilities.
The whole scheme seems like way too much work. For all of the time and effort spent, he could have been chasing down other legitimate sources of income. Oh well.
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