First, what this discloses is a corporate culture in which no seedy scheme is not countenanced. That it ended up in the hands of the enemy is just the result of playing on that field in the first place. Actual rigor would have cut sales but then it is take the money and run.
They all deserve real blowback and this lawsuit.
All unfortunate..
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PROFIT at any cost: Big Pharma’s bribery and kickback schemes led to deaths of U.S. soldiers
Wednesday, October 18, 2017 by: Jayson Veley
https://www.naturalnews.com/2017-10-18-big-pharmas-bribery-and-kickback-schemes-led-to-deaths-of-u-s-soldiers.html
(Natural News)
The families of U.S. troops who have been killed or injured while fighting overseas in Iraq have filed a lawsuit
against multiple U.S. and European pharmaceutical and medical supply
companies after accusing the corporations of knowingly financing the
Mahdi Army, an anti-American militia, through a series of bribes and kickbacks.
The lawsuit, which was filed against some of the biggest and most
well-known names in the industry – including GE Healthcare, Johnson
& Johnson, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Roche Holdings – claims that the
corporations sent financial aid
to Iraq’s Ministry of Health through their local agents. Allegedly,
these funds were then used by officials at the ministry to assist the
militia as they carried out attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq.
Needless to say, if the accusations made in the lawsuit really are
true, then it would be one of the most egregious acts ever committed by
pharmaceutical companies to date, and would even border on treason.
The money was sent in the form of “commissions” or “free goods,” and
at times amounted to as much as 20 percent of the total value of a
contract with ministry officials. In addition, the lawsuit alleges that
the defendants included specific language in their contracts that
promised Iraq’s Ministry of Health after-sales support and other
services related to the product that was sold to them.
“In reality, such services were illusory and functioned merely to
create a slush fund the local agents could use to pass on ‘commissions
to corrupt (ministry) officials,’” the lawsuit states.
While the lawsuit claims that the money that was sent from these
pharmaceutical companies to Iraq’s Ministry of Health violated the U.S.
anti-terrorism act, Pfizer released a statement explaining that the
company “categorically denies any wrongdoing.” In addition, GE said that
they were “thoroughly reviewing the allegations,” and a spokeswoman for
Roche declined to comment because the company had yet to be officially
served with the lawsuit. AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson also
refused to comment on the matter.
“Defendants did not intend for the ‘free goods’ provided to Kadima
(health ministry’s pharmaceutical importing agency) to serve any
legitimate charitable or medicinal purpose,” the lawsuit alleges. “It
was widely understood in Iraq that MOH (Ministry of Health) operated
more like a terrorist organization than a legitimate health entity, and
no rational company would have viewed MOH as a suitable object for
charity.”
Back in 2007, the global intelligence company Stratfor reported that
U.S. led forces in Iraq had arrested the deputy health minister after he
was accused of “selling health services and equipment in return for
millions of dollars that he later funneled to Shiite militias.”
Unfortunately, this is hardly the first time that global brands have
engaged in backdoor deals and shady transactions in exchange for special
privileges from and relationships with politicians and lawmakers. In
August, for example, Lee Jae-yong of Samsung was sentenced to five years
in prison after it was revealed that he had paid almost $8 million in
bribes to win over the support of South Korean President Park Geun-hye
in the midst of ongoing corporate negotiations. In 2012, Walmart was
accused of sending millions of dollars to the Mexican government in
hopes of speeding up construction of their stores there, an issue that
the company is still dealing with to this day.
Indeed, while these allegations against these pharmaceutical
companies are certainly serious and warrant further investigation, it
would be inaccurate to say that this sort of thing is rare and uncommon.
Attorneys working for law firms of Sparacino & Andreson and
Kellogg, Hansen, Todd, Figel & Frederick stated that they have spent
thousands of hours so far reviewing transactions that were made between
the pharmaceutical companies in question and the Iraqi Ministry of
Health between the years 2004 and 2013.
Ami Neiberger-Miller, whose 22-year-old brother was killed in a
roadside bomb allegedly planted by the Mahdi Army in Baghdad back in
2007, explained that she wants the companies to be held accountable for
providing them with financial aid. “I had always pictured my brother’s
killers as faceless,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought U.S. companies
would have anything to do with his death. Those funds went directly from
those companies to terrorists who had a mission to kill U.S. troops
like my brother. They should be held accountable. Companies should know
what is done in their name.”
Whether its U.S. corporations sending money to terrorists in Iraq, or even the disastrous and poorly run Department of Veterans Affairs,
something needs to be done to improve the way veterans and military
individuals are treated in this country. It’s sad, but far too often
these brave men and women don’t receive the amount of respect and care
that they deserve, and if U.S.-based pharmaceutical companies really did
put our troops in danger for money, then it really is a sad day in
America.
Sources include:
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