Ex-Pfizer Manager Found Guilty of Obstruction

BOSTON , MA—A Fairport, New York man was convicted on March 16, 2009, in federal court of obstruction of justice.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan; Warren T. Bamford, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Susan J. Waddell, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; Leigh-Alistair Barzey, Resident Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General, Department of Defense’s Criminal Investigative Service in Boston; Kim Rice, Special Agent in Charge of the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations; Jeffrey Hughes, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations - Northeast Field Office; and Joseph Finn, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service, Office of Inspector General, Boston Field Office, announced today that THOMAS FARINA, age 42, of Fairport, New York, was convicted of obstruction of justice by a jury sitting before U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro.

Evidence presented during the five day trial proved that in the summer of 2004, FARINA, then a Pfizer District Sales Manager, caused a sales representative under his direction to alter documents and backdate the alterations on his computer to delete the evidence of the promotion of a drug for uses and dosages for which it was not indicated or approved for promotion by the United States Food and Drug Administration. The evidence demonstrated that FARINA instructed his sales representative on how to change the clock and date setting on the computer, and then alter and re-save the documents in order to make the sanitized documents appear to have been last modified at an earlier time.

Judge Tauro scheduled sentencing for June 11, 2009. FARINA faces up to 20 years imprisonment, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, and a $ 250,000 fine. Pfizer Inc disclosed this conduct to the United States and fully cooperated in the investigation and prosecution of the case.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, Special Prosecutions Staff for the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and the Office of Inspector General for the United States Postal Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sara Miron Bloom and Susan M. Poswistilo of Sullivan’s Health Care Fraud Unit.