Jul. 21–BANGOR — Defense attorneys at presentencing hearings Wednesday sought to distance their clients from a string of crimes at Winslow’s Maine Biological Laboratories in the late 1990s.
The defendants — including four former top executives of the company, a veterinarian in Saudi Arabia, a nationally known academic researcher and the company itself — all have pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, fraud and other federal offenses.
They all played a role in the illegal production of a bird influenza vaccine, using a virus smuggled from Saudi Arabia. They later destroyed the vaccine in a coverup attempt.
The sentences — expected today from U.S. District Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. — will turn on the extent of their involvement.
A Federal investigation showed a pattern of the company mislabeling products to skirt U.S. health regulations and executives later trying to stop employees from documenting the abuses.
“The defendants are of unusual accomplishment,” Woodcock said Wednesday.
“The least-educated among them is a college graduate … The hearing is set up so I can understand how they got here, the context of the crimes and the individuals’ roles in it.”
The former executives are Vice President of Production Thomas C. Swieczkowski, 48, of Vassalboro; Vice President of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs Marjorie W. Evans, 42, of Belgrade Lakes; Chief Financial Officer Dennis H. Guerrette, 41, of Brunswick; and President John Donahoe, 60, now a resident of Georgia.
On Wednesday, defense lawyers at times grilled each other’s clients, trying to mitigate their own clients’ obstruction of justice, abuse of trust and leadership roles.
Under sharp questioning by Maine Biological Laboratories lawyer Michael Cunniff on the mislabeling policy, Evans sought to backpedal from seized company papers that show her actively approving the policy.
“Why in the world is this report being printed and shipped around?” she e-mailed Donahoe and Guerrette in 1999. “This is dangerous stuff. Who authorized this report?'” On Wednesday, she said, “I don’t think (mislabeling) was the right policy … My testifying may assist my sentencing, but more than that, I’m (now) trying to do the right thing.”
Despite her past role in the company’s regulatory affairs, Evans also said she did not know — until Wednesday’s hearing — that federal rules banned certain vaccines from shipping to Syria and North Korea.
The roots of the case lie in 1998, when Mark A. Dekich, a Maryland vet who worked for Saudi Arabia’s Fakieh chicken farm, asked a nationally known expert in the field, John K. Rosenberger of the University of Delaware, for advice on a virus outbreak in Fakieh’s flocks.
Rosenberger led Dekich to the Winslow firm, which later produced and smuggled $895,934 worth of vaccines to Fakieh.
Maine Biological Laboratories’ current chief executive David Zacek said its fate now turns on Woodcock’s sentence.
“Our assets-to-liabilities ratio is 1:1,” Zacek said. “We can’t borrow, and we don’t have millions set aside … But our prospects are good, if the fine is modest.”
The Winslow company, which now employs 136 in its Maine and New Jersey offices, is asking to pay no more than $60,000.
Each player faces different potential punishments, but Evans faces a maximum sentence of 78 1/2 years in prison and $1.7 million in fines.
The hearing continues today.
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