‘Breaking Bad’ biotech boss sentenced
Man tried to craft poisons as done on the popular TV series
The director of a biotechnology firm in Massachusetts — who feds say was inspired by Walter White from the TV show “Breaking Bad” — will serve three years of probation for trying to conceal his efforts to acquire deadly toxins.
Dr. Ishtiaq Ali Saaem in June 2015 ordered 800 seeds of the castor “bean” plant, which is the only species in the ricinus communis genus that gives the poison ricin its name, and six Lily of the Valley plants, which are also tremendously poisonous, according to a federal sentencing memo.
Saaem, 37, originally from Bangladesh but living in Boston, was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Boston by District Judge Richard G. Stearns to three years of probation, six months of which he is to be confined to his home, and to pay a $5,500 fine. Saaem pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice in April 2021.
“There is serious cause for concern when anyone tries to acquire a deadly biological toxin such as ricin, but it’s even more troubling when they lie to us about it,” Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston office, wrote in a statement.
Saaem falsely told federal investigators he was buying both plants for their beauty, adding that he had only intended to buy one 8-seed pack of castor bean seeds and only accidentally bought 100.
The castor bean, “with oversized, tropical-looking leaves and bizarre seed pods,” according to the University of Wisconsin, “is an exotic addition to the ornamental garden.” The ricin inside is one of earth’s “deadliest natural poisons”: 6,000 times more potent than cyanide and 12,000 more than rattlesnake venom. The feds wrote in a sentencing memo that an amount of ricin less than the weight of a grain of rice could fell a 200-pound animal or person.
The Lily of the Valley plant, according to the Colorado State University Guide to Toxic Plants, “is a common garden plant prized for its perfumed white flowers, and is an attractive groundcover.” It’s also the source of a host of toxins. The guide says that the poison has a “digitalislike” effect by “causing cardiac conduction disturbances.”
Both were used in the show “Breaking Bad,” which the feds say inspired Saaem. In that show, main character Walter White is a high school chemistry teacher who “breaks bad” as a meth producer who also resorts to killing off anyone who threatens his enterprise.