We normally focus on Lake County or related local government issues.
This issue doesn't really affect most regular Lake County Fiscal Rangers readers, but if you want to see details of what can be done with social media to get government to actually prosecute wrongdoers, instead of just paying a fine, read on.
I am separately involved in research related to a new "CCSVI" treatment for multiple sclerosis - MS (I don't have it). This week, the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) posted a press release about a drug company Serono Labs, that had paid unreported bribes and other expenses for many doctors to market an MS drug called Rebif. The press release said bribery, money laundering and kickbacks were involved to get doctors to push Rebif to MS patients. Most MS drugs are REALLY expensive and many prescriptions are paid by Medicare or Medicaid, thus the Federal involvement.
DOJ issued a press release that they had settled with Serano paying a fine of $40-million, but NO officers were prosecuted. This has upset the MS "community" evidenced by many postings on MS related Facebook pages around the world, especially since Serono was the subject of an earlier prosecution that resulted in them paying a $705-million fine. So, they weren't naive.
Since I understand the Federal investigations systems, I have launched a campaign via Facebook to generate MS community, public and Federal Congressional pressure to have an investigation why DOJ did not prosecute anyone. I even called the specific US Attorney's office that settled the case, and they would not explain why there were no prosecutions. I am learning more details, and the US Dept of Health & Human Services Inspector General's office told us that the CEO and other officers may be subject to being added to an "exclusion" list which means they cannot be affiliated with any organization that receives Federal payments for Health services (i.e. Medicare reimbursements to clinics, etc.). Another wrist slap - they can still collect parachute funds and retire without problem.
So, if you have further interest, you can visit my separate Facebook page "CCSVIUSA" and in the Notes will be a document containing the Serano Labs case details as it unfolds. The interesting thing is that using Facebook Page Notes, you can post an article on Facebook that goes out to selected groups and pages, and mine went to about 130,000 MS patients.
Read the note here:
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=160462850683248
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