Svirskiy Still in Federal Custody

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

In an apparent reversal federal officials have decided that a defendant in the criminal case stemming from a deadly 2012 outbreak cannot serve the remainder of his sentence under home confinement and he remains in a federal prison in Massachusetts.
Officials of the federal Bureau of Prisons said today that Gene Svirskiy, 39, will remain at the federal prison at Fort Devens to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Victims of the outbreak had been notified last month that Svirskiy, who was convicted of racketeering, conspiracy, mail fraud and violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act, would be released on July 1 and after a brief stop at a halfway house, would be under house arrest at his Ashland, Mass. home to serve the remaining months of his 2.5 year sentence.
"Gene Svirskiy has a projected release date of Aug. 26, 2021 and is in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Federal Medical Center Devens," BOP spokesman Emery Nelson wrote in an email response to questions.
Svirskiy's attorney did not respond to a request for comment
Svirskiy was one of 14 people connected to the now defunct New England Compounding Center who were indicted following a two-year probe of the deadly 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak. Svirskiy, who was working as a licensed pharmacist was not charged with making the contaminated drugs that caused the outbreak but for other violations of federal law.
Lawyers for Svirskiy had asked U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to allow Svirskiy to serve out his sentence under home confinement because of a coronavirus outbreak at the prisons. Federal prosecutors opposed the motion, noting that Svirskiy was in a separate section of the prison than the one where the infected prisoners were held.
Stearns denied the motion concluding that under federal law he could not grant the request.
Nonetheless victims of the outbreak were subsequently notified by email that Svirskiy would be released and allowed to complete his sentence under house arrest.
Victims contacted today said they had not been informed of the reversal.
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