In June, St. Jude had agreed to pay the government $3.7 million to settle allegations that it had paid illegal kickbacks to physicians in return for their use of its pacemakers and defibrillators. The kickbacks were allegedly paid in the form of airplane tickets, sporting tickets, conference fees and fine wines but were disguised as payments for data collection and other services related to clinical trials of St. Jude products, according to the report.
“The goal of the instant derivative action is to prevent corporate insiders from shifting all responsibility for the company’s misconduct onto the backs of the innocent public shareholders, while they themselves walk away while paying nothing, and even voting themselves increased salaries and benefits,” the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System said in a shareholder derivative lawsuit in federal court.
Read the Courthouse News report about St. Jude Medical’s shareholders’ charge.
Read other coverage about alleged kickback schemes:
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