Prosecutors Reassert $73.7 Million Restitution Claim

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Calling arguments by a former drug company executive absurd and nonsensical, federal prosecutors have reasserted their claim that Barry J. Cadden should pay $73.7 million in restitution to victims of a deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.
In a 13-page filing today in U.S. District Court in Boston, Mass. the U.S. Attorney charged that actions by Cadden were directly responsible for the deaths and injuries to some 352 identifiable victims.
Cadden is now serving a nine-year prison sentence following his March conviction on charges of racketeering, conspiracy and mail fraud. He already has been ordered to forfeit $7.5 million.
The filing by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Strachan and George Varghese also defends providing restitution to clinics that purchased drugs from the New England Compounding Center, the now defunct company Cadden headed. Their proposal also would bring restitution to insurance companies who paid some of the victims' medical expenses.
"The clinics endured substantial out-of-pocket losses as a result of Cadden's fraudulent schemes," they argued.
Most of the $73.7 million, however would go to patients sickened by NECC drugs. Some 778 patients were sickened and 76 of them died after being injected with fungus laden steroids produced by NECC.
"These patients were directly and proximately harmed by Cadden's criminal conduct," the filing states.
Cadden has argued that he was convicted for misrepresenting the processes utilized at NECC and not the quality of the company's drugs. His lawyers contend restitution should be limited to $5,377.60
"This statement is wrong and nonsensical," the prosecutors stated. "The quality of the drugs is the reason the production process mattered to customers."
Asserting  that Cadden was convicted on 27 separate fraud and racketeering charges, the prosecutors stated that if not for Cadden's "voluminous misrepresentations.. not a single victim would have been harmed."
They also rejected Cadden's claim that because there were so many victims suffering so many different injuries, no restitution could be calculated.