Devices

Implant Sales Rep Arrested in Fraud Case

Former DePuy Synthes sales representative Matthew Capobianco of Winchester, MA, was arrested 6/26 on eight counts of wire fraud and one count of making false statements in a case investigating his interference with a Boston-area hospital’s sterilization processes.

A government indictment contends that from 1/2016 through 6/2017 Capobianco defrauded the hospital out of hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of spine products that he falsely represented were used in spine surgeries he covered. “As a sales representative at DePuy, Capobianco was present in operating rooms at the hospital during spine surgeries dressed in scrubs and a surgical mask,” the government says. “In that role, Capobianco was responsible for tracking the type and quantity of DePuy products used in the spine surgeries on usage forms that he submitted to the hospital’s billing department, among other things.”

During this period, it is alleged that Capobianco instructed a subordinate DePuy sales representative to bring certain DePuy spinal implants into an operating room at the hospital for surgery, without those implants first being sterilized. Capobianco himself brought spinal implants that were not in compliance with the hospital’s sterilization policies to an operating room at the hospital. “Concerned about the dangers posed by unsterile implants, hospital employees confiscated the spinal implants to ensure they were not used in a scheduled surgery that day, and Capobianco was banned from the hospital that afternoon,” the government says.

The case was investigated by FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations and other government agencies.

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