In Boston, top pharmaceutical executive John Kapoor found guilty of bribing doctors to push opioid

A pharmaceutical company founder accused of paying doctors millions in bribes to prescribe a highly addictive fentanyl spray was convicted Thursday in a case that exposed such marketing tactics as using a stripper-turned-sales-rep to give a physician a lap dance.

John Kapoor, the 76-year-old former chairman of Insys Therapeutics, was found guilty of racketeering conspiracy after 15 days of jury deliberations. Four ex-employees of the Chandler, Arizona-based company, including the former exotic dancer, were also convicted.

Some of the most sensational evidence in the months-long federal trial included a video of employees dancing and rapping around an executive dressed as a giant bottle of the powerful spray Subsys, and testimony about how the company made a habit of hiring attractive women as sales representatives.

Federal prosecutors portrayed the case as part of the government's effort to go after those it views as responsible for fueling the nation's deadly opioid crisis.

Read more: https://www.masslive.com/boston/2019/05/in-boston-top-pharmaceutical-executive-john-kapoor-found-guilty-of-bribing-doctors-to-push-opioid.html