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For nearly a decade, sales representatives from a prominent medical device maker operated a bribery scheme at a Kansas veterans hospital that wasted millions of taxpayer dollars and jeopardized the lives of patients, a recently unsealed whistleblower lawsuit alleges.
The sales reps from the company, Medtronic, “bribed hospital staff to purchase its devices over those of competitors and to purchase grossly excessive inventory,” according to the suit.
In 2017, Tom Schroeder filed the lawsuit, United States ex rel. Schroeder v. Medtronic, Inc., under seal. The case became public at the end of 2022, when the government decided not to intervene in the case.
Schroeder said before this lawsuit consumed his life, he devoted his career to the medical device industry. For years he worked at Becton Dickinson, a direct competitor to Medtronic. At the time of the alleged kickback scheme, Schroeder was a sales manager at Becton Dickinson, but eventually ascended to the level of an area vice president, making him responsible for managing sales representatives in his region.
“We get into this industry to help people,” Schroeder said.
Tom Schroeder, the whistleblower accusing Medtronic of a kickback scheme, left, is interviewed by Morgan Brennan, in Kansas City, Missouri.
CNBC
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