PhotoFederal prosecutors in New York announced on Thursday that they had arrested a former Valeant executive and the former chief executive of the mail-order pharmacy Philidor in what the prosecutors described as a multimillion dollar fraud and kickback scheme aimed at personally enriching both executives. According to the federal complaint, the former Valeant executive, Gary Tanner, entered into a secret relationship with Philidor’s chief executive, Andrew Davenport. Under the arrangement, Mr. Tanner was secretly paid millions of dollars to promote the pharmacy’s interests inside Valeant, including persuading Valeant to buy an option to acquire Philidor, then a little-known mail-order pharmacy based in Hatboro, Penn. Mr. Tanner and Mr. Davenport could not immediately be reached for comment. Its chief executive, J. Michael Pearson, stepped down in the spring, and the problems also led to a shake-up of the board.

Source: New York Times November 17, 2016 15:36 UTC