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Press Release

Healthcare Sales Representative Sentenced for Obstructing Federal Investigation

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Massachusetts

BOSTON – A sales representative for multiple healthcare companies was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with obstructing an investigation into kickbacks paid to medical professionals.

 

Terrence Kyle Tackett, 50, of Florence, Ky., was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Allison D. Burroughs to three years of probation, with the first six months in community confinement and then six months on home detention, 100 hours of community service to be completed during the last two years of probation, and a fine of $15,000. In May 2016, Tackett pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of a criminal investigation of health care offenses.

 

From 2012 to 2013, Tackett worked as a sales representative in Kentucky for California-based healthcare company Cardio Dx, and from August 2013 to February 2015, he worked for Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a Cambridge-based pharmaceutical company. From 2012 through February 2015, Tackett gave medical professionals gift cards and personal checks in exchange for ordering or prescribing the products he promoted and to get access to private patient information protected by HIPAA. During a January 2015 meeting with investigators, Tackett falsely denied and attempted to conceal the kickbacks he had been paying to physicians and their staffs for years in Kentucky and southern Ohio.

 

Acting United States Attorney William Weinreb; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; Phillip Coyne, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations; Mark McCormack, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, Metro Washington Field Office; and Susan Hensley, Director of U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Boston Regional Office, made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kriss Basil and Young Paik of Weinreb’s Office prosecuted the case with assistance from the Justice Department’s Consumer Protection Branch.

Updated February 8, 2017

Topic
Health Care Fraud