Name Games

A splendid good day to you! Glad you could make it by. Got an interesting fraudulent name game for you in today's post. But first, coffee up and munch your way through a virtual, extremely lo-fat doughnut. That's my prescription for a 'caffo' day! And now...

Fourteen employees of a Framingham, Massachusetts, pharmacy were indicted in December for defrauding the federal government by filling bogus prescriptions (despite an owner's explicit instructions to staff that the fake customers' names "must resemble real names," with "no obviously false names" that might tip off law enforcement).

 

Among the names later found on the customer list of the New England Compounding Center were: Baby Jesus, Hugh Jass, L.L. Bean, Filet O'Fish, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Harry Potter, Coco Puff, Mary Lamb, all of the Baldwin brother actors, and a grouping of Bud Weiser, Richard Coors, Raymond Rollingrock and, of course, Samuel Adams. The indictments were part of an investigation of a 2012 meningitis outbreak in which 64 people died. [WBZ-TV (Boston), 12-17-2014] 

The story goes a lot deeper than that shown above. According to FBI news releases:

A 131-count criminal indictment was unsealed today in Boston in connection with the 2012 nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak, the Justice Department announced. Barry J. Cadden, owner and head pharmacist of New England Compounding Center (NECC) and NECC’s supervisory pharmacist Glenn A. Chin were charged with 25 acts of second-degree murder in Florida, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
 
The outbreak was caused by contaminated vials of preservative-free methylprednisolone acetate (MPA) manufactured by NECC, located in Framingham, Massachusetts. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 751 patients in 20 states were diagnosed with a fungal infection after receiving injections of NECC’s MPA. Of those 751 patients, the CDC reported that 64 patients in nine states died.

Twelve other individuals, all associated with NECC, including six other pharmacists, the director of operations, the national sales director, an unlicensed pharmacy technician, two of NECC’s owners, and one other individual were charged with additional crimes including racketeering, mail fraud, conspiracy, contempt, structuring, and violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. [http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fourteen-indicted-in-connection-with-new-england-compounding-center-and-nationwide-fungal-meningitis-outbreak]

Yikes! Great folks to have compounding and dispensing medicines, eh! Makes you shudder, doesn't it!

See ya, eh!

Bob