The medical device industry is unfortunately crime blotter worthy. Here are seven recent cases to make the headlines.

Chris Newmarker and Brian Buntz

Medtech unfortunately has its share of crime cases, as we've come to discover at Qmed. In this year alone, such stories were among the most popular pieces of content on the site. With that in mind, we would like to share with you the most prominent crime stories of 2015 thus far.  

So here is our very own medtech crime blotter:

1. Military Docs Can Go to Prison for (Secretly) Taking Medtech Money

Former U.S. Army physician Richard Craig Rooney has been sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for recommending products from Altiva Corp. and Allure Spine Consulting, while hiding from the military that he was taking money from the companies. Military physicians are under much stricter rules over such gifts than doctors in general. In fact pharmaceutical and medical device companies paid U.S. physicians $6.49 billion last year.

Learn more about the doctor's alleged conflict of interests.

2. Former St. Jude Medical VP Accused of Expensing Strip Club Visits

Bryan Szweda is due back in court in St. Paul, MN, next month after turning himself in after being charged with five counts of theft by swindle, along with an additional felony charge of theft of trade secrets. Szweda, who worked at St. Jude from 2009 to 2014, is accused of stealing nearly $142,000 via falsified expense reports and his corporate credit card, spending the money on everything from from NBA tickets to multiple strip club visits.

Read more about the string of felonies filed against Szweda, as well as his decision to turn himself in over the theft charges.  

3. A Medtech Murder Mystery

In February, Allison Feldman, a 31-year-old burn and trauma device sales rep for the Swedish firm Mölnlycke Health Care was murdered in her Arizona home. Details were scarce then with Scottsdale, AZ-police hesitant to release much information regarding the crime or its investigation.

Learn more about the crime and few details that eventually did emerge in the case.

4.  Former Acclarent Execs Hit with Fraud Charges

Johnson & Johnson acquired Acclarent for $785 million in 2010. But before that happened, its top executives were engaged in a host of fraudulent activities in anticipation of an eventual payday at the sinus balloon catheter company, according to federal prosecutors in Massachusetts, who have charged two former Acclarent executives. The judge in the case is presently going through motions.

Learn more about the case against the executives.

J&J was also hit with its own lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court.

5. Another Tragic Medtech Murder

Earlier this year, Lyle "Ty" Hoffman was sentenced in St. Paul, MN, to the expected 25 ½-year prison sentence for murdering Kelly L. Phillips, 48, a general counsel and vice president for Worldwide Businesses at Boston Scientific in Minneapolis. Hoffman, a former romantic and business partner of Phillips, admitted that he shot Phillips multiple times--once at close range--after a heated argument and struggle at a suburban Twin Cities gas station.

Read more about the murder case.

6.  Pacemaker Takes Center Stage in Murder Case

An Ontario man spent months in jail, accused of stabbing his father to death--until data from his dad's St. Jude Medical pacemaker provided crucial evidence, according to a report in the Toronto Star.

Learn more about how the pacemaker set him free.

7. An Alleged Medtech Investment Fraud

Kenneth Jackson founded Medical Safety Solutions in 2007, and along with three others traveled around the company selling private stock in the company, which touted a needle destruction device known as the Sharps Terminator. The big problem was that they did not have an FDA PMA for the device, and worse, they lied about it to investors, according to federal prosecutors in Ohio.

Read more about the alleged $7 million investment fraud.

Anything else that should have been included in this roundup? Email us at [email protected] and [email protected].

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