Grant C. Jaquith, Temporary Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District
of New York, and Mark Dragonetti, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Food and Drug
Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, New York Field Office, announced that
The Plastic Surgery Group, LLP (TPSG) of Albany, New York, was sentenced and
ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $106,686, and a fine of $200,000, in connection
with TPSG's plea of guilty to one felony count of misbranding drugs, in violation of Title 21,
United States Code, Sections 331(k), 352(i)(3), and 333(a)(2). TPSG was sentenced in
Federal District Court in Albany, New York by District Judge Thomas J. McAvoy.
Additionally, Doctors William F. De Luca, Jr., Douglas M. Hargrave,
Jeffrey L. Rockmore, Steven M. Lynch, And John D. Noonan, were sentenced
to probation with community service, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of
$106,686, and a fine of $5,000. TPSG's practice administrator, Peter M. Slattery,
and supervisory nurse Susan F. Knott, were also sentenced and ordered to pay
restitution in the amount of $106,686, and fines in the amount of $1,000 and $500,
respectively. All individual defendants were sentenced in connection with their guilty pleas
to one misdemeanor count of misbranding drugs, in violation of Title 21, United States
Code, Sections 331(k), 352(i)(3), and 333(a)(1), in United States District Court in Albany,
New York by Magistrate Judge David R. Homer.
According to plea agreements, starting in approximately February 2004 and
continuing to December 2004, defendant TPSG ceased using the FDA-approved BOTOX®
and BOTOX® Cosmetic and began exclusively using a non-FDA approved TRI-toxin on its
patients seeking treatments with Botulinum Toxin Type A for facial wrinkles. Five (5)
physicians, whose professional corporations were partners of TPSG (the "treating
physicians"), with the assistance of TPSG nurses, injected approximately one hundred and
fifty (150) patients with the unapproved product.
Source
U.S. Attorney
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