JAILED NECC EXEC MAY PAY BIG
Feds eye $74M restitution from disgraced owner
Federal prosecutors have moved to force a convicted pharmacy executive to pay $74 million in restitution to hundreds of victims of a multistate fungal meningitis outbreak.
Barry Cadden, 50, head of the now-defunct New England Compounding Center in Framingham, is currently incarcerated at a lowsecurity federal penitentiary in Pennsylvania.
Cadden was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment earlier this year for his conviction on 57 felony counts, including racketeering, in connection with the 2012 public health disaster.
A jury acquitted Cadden of 25 counts of second-degree murder.
The intended recipients of the money include relatives of 62 of those who were killed by NECC’s mold-blighted steroid pain medication, 210 people left disabled and another 37 who remain partially disabled, according to the government’s filing before U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns. The recipients’ identities were filed under seal.
“In this case,” prosecutors stated, “the victims of Cadden’s crimes are the patients who were injected with NECC’s contaminated drugs, the medical facilities that purchased them, and insurance plans that paid for patients’ treatments.”
The recipients represent fewer than half of the 753 people the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported were sickened by fungal meningitis in 20 states. The outbreak killed 64 of them.
Meanwhile yesterday, Stearns ordered Cadden to separately forfeit $7.5 million of his personal wealth, which he determined to be “the total amount of NECC proceeds that were paid to Barry Cadden personally” during the term of his crimes from March 2010 to October 2012.
At one point, the feds were seeking to financially penalize Cadden by as much as $132.8 million by requesting he forfeit assets that include a luxury BMW M3, a boat, diamonds, property and abutting land in Wrentham featuring a 13-room manse assessed at $1.4 million, and $1.48 million seized from a trust account, according to court records.
Federal courts frown on letting defendants deduct personal money judgments from any restitution they’re ordered to pay victims. Stearns noted he will address the government’s restitution request after Cadden’s attorneys file their response.
Glenn Chin, who was Cadden’s supervising pharmacist, is currently on trial in federal court on charges including seconddegree murder, racketeering and introducing adulterated drugs into interstate commerce.