March 8, 2021 – DOJ issued a PRESS RELEASE announcing that an in a now unsealed indictment, a federal grand jury in Miami charged a Florida medical doctor and three others for their roles in an alleged scheme to falsify clinical trial data. See Indictment below:
The DOJ reports that according to court documents, the physician, the owner of the research clinic, and the clinic’s senior staff, were each charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and at least one count of mail fraud. The physician and one staff person were also charged with money laundering. Additionally, the physician was further charged with making a false statement to inspectors with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
According to the indictment, the defendants fabricated clinical trial data for profit while working at Tellus Clinical Research (Tellus), a medical clinic based in Miami. The indictment alleges that the defendants knowingly enrolled subjects in clinical trials when those subjects failed to meet eligibility criteria, falsified subject laboratory results, falsified subject medical records, and falsely represented that subjects were taking the drugs being studied when in fact they were not. The defendant physician served as primary investigator for the clinical trials conducted at Tellus, another defendant was the owner of Tellus, and two other defendants were senior Tellus employees.