Tuesday 13 September 2011

Australian companies in U.S. 'whistleblower' litigation


1. According to U.S. ABC News on 6 September 2011 Alphapharm P/L, an Australian subsidiary of multinational Mylan Inc, is accused of defrauding the American Government:


The U.S. Attorney's office on Tuesday joined in the lawsuit, brought by Chicago pharmacist Bernard Lisitza.

The lawsuits are listed as UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ex rel. BERNARD LISITZA, States ex rel. BERNARD LISITZA, and BERNARD LISITZA, individually v. PAR PHARMACEUTICALS, et al - Northern District of Illinois, 06 C 6131.

The San Francisco Chronicle on 6 September reported that; The U.S. didn't join the suit against the Mylan units.

Mr. Lisitza has a history of successfully bringing whistle blower suits against drug companies.

If this entry below is correct then a Bernard Lisitza of Illinois appears to have a less well-known background:

(051-025359) of Lisitza indefinitely suspended for a minimum of nine months, and Itasca Prescription
Pharmacy license (054-003249) and controlled substance license revoked, due to a felony conviction in federal
court for purchasing and trading a prescription drug; purchasing drugs that did not have intact safety seals,
manufacturers’ boxes and packaging inserts with the intent of reselling the drugs to the public; and, filling
prescriptions for patients in nursing homes by placing in blister packages misbranded drugs that were
manufactured in Mexico and not approved for distribution in the United States.

2. OC Weekly on 9 September 2011 reported that the U.S. arm of the Australian company manufacturing NADS is in the firing line in Orange County Superior Court Case No. 30-2011-00497156, in what appears to be a counter suit to Sue Ismiel and Daughters US Inc v. Robert Spetner et al which accuses the defendant of mail tampering:

This is SI&D response to the lawsuit alleging that it fired a company executive when he encouraged SI&D to issue a U.S. recall notice for a known defective product, Nad’s Body Hair Removal Strips:

"In response to legal action initiated by SI&D (US) Inc against its former president, Robert Spetner, due to his wrongfully having seized control of the Company's mail, Mr. Spetner has filed a cross-complaint in which he groundlessly and falsely alleges that he was terminated because he had engaged in "whistle blowing" and presented other meritless claims against the Company. SI&D categorically denies these allegations and will defend them vigorously. In point of fact, the Company appropriately terminated him due to poor performance and serious misconduct that directly benefitted him at the expense of the Company and it is our intention to pursue further legal action against Mr. Spetner in this regard.

The substantive issues raised in Mr. Spetner's complaint are riddled with factual errors and outright misrepresentations that stand in stark contrast to our 14-year record of conducting an ethical and successful business in the United States that is founded on providing our customers and retail partners with great products and excellent service. Contrary to the tenor of Mr Spetner's complaint, we are proud to endorse the quality and efficacy of our award-winning range of Nad's depiliatory products that are available at leading retailers throughout the US, Great Britain and Australia/New Zealand.

As this matter is currently the subject of litigation, we have been advised by counsel to limit further public comment on this matter pending its legal resolution."

Coincidentally the ACCC published an Australian recall notice for Batch 10642 of Nad's Brazilian and Bikini Wax on 3 August 2011.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Ex-executive Robert Spetner of Huntington Beach (right) remembers his last job like a bad bikini wax.

Spetner, former president of a company that sells Nad’s hair removal products, claims in a lawsuit that he was fired in June for blowing the whistle on more than 300,000 boxes of defective body strips. Spetner’s suit said the wax-coated strips, which were supposed to yank hair from unwanted areas, just didn’t work.

Nevertheless, Sue Ismiel and Daughters — an Australian company with U.S. headquarters in Garden Grove — delivered the defective Nad’s strips to national retailers, including Walmart, Target, CVS, Safeway and others, according to the suit, filed last week in Orange County Superior Court.

“They didn’t want any retailers to know about it, and we’re talking big retailers, just about everyone who sells beauty products,” Spetner said in an interview. “I kept raising the issue, what are we going to do about it? We need to face the fire.”

At the same time, the suit said, the company sought reimbursement from its manufacturer in Spain for the defective strips, made in 2009 and 2010.

Spetner, who pushed for a wholesale recall of the product, now is seeking $500,000 in damages.

“The only reason they didn’t renew his contract was because he was a whistleblower,” said his attorney, Russ Thomas, of Newport Beach. “There’s still some (defective product) on the shelves, it takes time to dissipate that stock.”

Spetner said he wrote a letter to the federal Food and Drug Administration and reported the product to the state Attorney General’s office, but did not hear back from the agencies......
http://inyourface.ocregister.com/2011/09/12/executive-fired-in-fight-over-bad-bikini-wax-strips/33638/