The US Attorney’s Office is accusing Wright Medical Group of breaching its deferred prosecution agreement concerning alleged kickbacks to doctors. Wright Medical is a global medical device maker of artificial knees, hips, and other joints. The agreement breach may lead to further civil and criminal issues for the medical device maker.
According to one media report, Wright Medical has been notified by the US Attorney’s Office of two willful and knowing material breaches of its deferred prosecution agreement. According to law.com,
“The SEC documents filed Wednesday said:
• GC Raymond Kolls and two other executives resigned suddenly this week “without good reason,” which means they are not entitled to severance pay. Kolls couldn’t be reached for comment.
• Kolls was immediately replaced on Wednesday by interim GC Thomas McAllister, an assistant general counsel at Wright.
• The board recently received a tip about non-compliance and hired unnamed outside counsel to conduct an internal investigation. The probe found “credible evidence of serious wrongdoing,” which the board communicated to the U.S. attorney’s office on Wednesday.”
The deferred prosecution agreement between the federal government and Wright Medical was finalized last year and resulted in Wright Medical paying $7.9 million in civil and administrative claims. The terms of the agreement included the hiring of an independent monitor. The terms of the agreement was to last five years.