Fake Names Common at Mass. Drug Firm

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

A former salesman for a defunct drug compounding company testified extensively today about the frequent use of fake names like Johnny Cash and Al Bundy to purchase prescription drugs from his former employer in violation of the law in Massachusetts and other states.
The testimony came as the trial of six former employees of the New England Compounding Center ended its first week.
Kenneth Boneau, a former salesman for the drug firm, acknowledged records showing the use of fake names like Wayne Gretzky and Paul Harvey was common while defense lawyers countered with company records showing that in some cases other NECC employees demanded real patient names. Under Massachusetts law and laws and regulations in many other states signed patient specific prescriptions are required.
The six former NECC employees are charged with racketeering, mail fraud and conspiracy. The charges followed a two year federal probe of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak which killed 76 patients across the country including 16 from Tennessee.
As the session began U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns gave the jurors a primer on the three requirements to meet the legal definition of a conspiracy. He promised details on other charges, such as racketeering, when the trial resumes Monday.
Under questioning from Assistant U.S. Attorney George Varghese, Boneau acknowledged there were numerous fake names submitted by a Nebraska pain clinic dating back to 2009. The fake names were listed, not on individual prescription forms, but on sheets attached to standard NECC ordering forms.
Varghese read from multiple NECC order forms with names ranging from James Dean to Roy Rogers and Dick Van Dyke.
"I think we get the point," Stearns said after Varghese had cited numerous examples.
Earlier lawyers for some of the defendants presented other NECC records showing that their clients and others at NECC responded to the fake names by insisting that Boneau and his sales colleagues go back to their customers and get real names.
In one email Sharon Carter, one of the defendants, stated that an order was being held pending the submission of real patient names.
"I'll see what I can do," Boneau responded to another Carter email asking for patent names.
Lawyers for the defendants also pointed to memos showing that orders without real names only went through with the personal approval of NECC President Barry Cadden.
In one memo from Cadden himself, staffers were told,"I'm the only one that make this decision."
Cadden, who was convicted last year on racketeering and mail fraud charges, is serving a nine year sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania.
Jurors also were told that some NECC customers were specifically exempted from listing individual patient names under contractual agreements. Under the contracts, the health care providers agreed to keep the real names and provide them to NECC if it later became necessary.
Defense lawyers also used internal emails to show that there were instances when drug orders were delayed until test results from an outside firm were submitted. Prosecutors have charged that the opposite was often the case and drugs were shipped before tests were completed or in some cases sh without any testing at all.
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