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Federal district judge rejects corporate plea deal

By Douglas A. Berman

This New York Times story, which is headlined "Judge Rejects Plea Deal on Guidant Heart Device," reports on an interesting development in a notable federal corporate prosecution. Here are the basics: A federal judge in Minnesota on Tuesday rejected a plea agreement between the federal government and the Guidant Corporation, saying that the deal did not hold the company sufficiently accountable for an episode in which it sold potentially flawed heart defibrillators. The ruling was a setback for the Justice Department, which had characterized the agreement as a demonstration of its get-tough approach to corporate crime. The deal called on Guidant to plead guilty to two misdemeanors and pay a $296 million fine, described as the largest by a medical device company...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 28, 2010 (boomark / email).