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# OCI Internal Grand Jury E-mails Questioned: Reuters
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/oci-internal-grand-jury-e-mails-questioned-reuters/
- Published: 2016-09-14T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T21:31:51.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: FDA Policy/General, #legacy-id-D5136796

Continuing its investigation into the FDA Office of Criminal Investigations (OCI), Reuters says that OCI agents routinely share details about criminal matters pending before grand juries with more than two dozen top agency officials. The news service [says](https://www.yahoo.com/news/fdas-sharing-grand-jury-information-comes-under-criticism-110237616.html?ref=fdaweb.com) the “headquarters alerts” let the executives know about expected actions inside or outside of court, including arrests, search warrants, grand jury indictments, or jury verdicts, so that FDA managers can prepare for possible media interest. “Managers in the Rockville-based criminal investigations office require agents in the field to send these e-mails, internal communications and interviews show,” Reuters says.

The article references section 6(3) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure that imposes strict secrecy requirements on government employees, including prosecutors and agents investigating cases pending before grand juries, and notes that attorneys have varying opinions on whether OCI is violating that section.

OCI director **George Katavestos** said “discussing those things that are going to happen prospectively or have not yet happened, meaning that they may or may not happen, doesn’t necessarily violate 6(e). I have not seen anything that has violated 6(e).”

But **Adam Kurland**, a former federal prosecutor now teaching law at Howard University, said it was “mind-boggling” that FDA “bureaucrats who should know better” are internally sharing details about who is testifying and what counts are being considered. Unless every single person on the e-mail distribution list was properly designated, he said, FDA is likely violating the rules in its own OCI handbook. “It sounds like the FDA PR machine has gotten ahead of itself,” Kurland suggested. And defense attorney **Solomon Wisenberg** said he believed almost any federal judge would agree that OCI’s actions are improper.

However, defense attorney **James Felman** said that “the expectation that certain information is going to be presented to a grand jury is not necessarily 6(3)."

The Reuters probe first [looked](https://www.fdaweb.com/oci-botox-police-hit-for-low-prosecution-count/) at the low prosecution rate among cases investigated by OCI.