A former University of Rhode Island pharmacy professor convicted in a scheme to ship drugs to “obviously phony names” like Coco Puff and L.L. Bean won’t end up behind bars.
The Providence Journal reports that Michelle Caetano Thomas, 35, of Cumberland, Rhode Island, was sentenced to probation on Dec. 20 at federal court in Boston.
Thomas was convicted of two felony violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act following a federal investigation into the Massachusetts-based New England Compounding Center launched in the wake of a deadly 2012 meningitis outbreak linked to mold-contaminated steroids from the center, according to the Journal. That outbreak killed 76 people and sickened nearly 800, the Reuters news agency reports.
Thomas wasn’t accused of playing a role in the distribution of the contaminated steroids. Rather, federal prosecutors said Thomas participated in widespread fraud at the center by signing off on drug shipments without valid prescriptions to “obviously phony names” like Coco Puffs, Filet O’Fish and L.L. Bean, according to the Journal.
She had recently begun working at the center when prosecutors said the fraud began, the Journal reports.
Thomas left the center after four months for a post in the University of Rhode Island’s College of Pharmacy before the 2012 meningitis outbreak became public. She resigned from the university following her conviction in May of this year, according to The Narragansett Times. Another pharmacist, Kathy Chin, was convicted with Thomas, the Journal reports.
The Rhode Island Board of Pharmacy indefinitely suspended Thomas’ license following her May 2 convictions, according to a consent order dated June 10. The state pharmacy board previously suspended her license in late 2014 before lifting that suspension as her case worked its way through the court system, documents show.
Thomas’ attorney, Michael Bourbeau, told the Journal on Dec. 20 that his client would appeal her convictions. Bourbeau said earlier this year that Thomas’ role at the center was akin to that of a shipping clerk and that prosecutors failed to show “any evidence that she was aware of these [fraudulent] activities.”