LAWFUEL – The Law News Network – R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and David W. Bourne, Special Agent in Charge, Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Office of Criminal Investigations, Miami Field Office, announced that defendant, TIMOTHY W. OVINGTON, 43, of Alpharetta, Georgia, was sentenced today in a criminal case arising out of a Miami-based FDA investigation named Operation Miami Device. Thus far, Operation Miami Device has led to convictions in fourteen (14) cases of medical device theft with charges pending in five additional cases, and has resulted in forfeitures, fines, and restitution totaling over $3.2 million.
Ovington was sentenced before United States District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga, in Miami, Florida, for his role in a conspiracy to transport and sell in interstate commerce various prescription medical devices, without registering as a distributor, all with the intent to deceive the FDA, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371. Judge Altonaga sentenced Ovington to a four months of home detention and three years of probation. In addition, Ovington was ordered to pay a criminal fine of $2,000 and to forfeit $25,447.36 to the United States, an amount equal to his personal gain in the criminal conspiracy.
According to court records and statements at the hearing, from approximately May 1995 through June 2001, Ovington participated in a conspiracy with an individual in Miami, Florida, who solicited sales representatives and other employees of medical device manufacturers, seeking to purchase medical devices for re-sale. It was part of the conspiracy that Ovington, by contacting former co-workers still employed by Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc., a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, secured possession of significant quantities of prescription medical devices which Ovington then shipped through an Ethicon employee located in San Diego, California, to the Miami-based fence for sale. Ovington’s former co-workers were able to acquire the devices as samples ostensibly for business-development, trade-outs of newer models for older but serviceable devices from customers, and by a variety of other means.
Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Food and Drug Administration. These cases were prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald.
A copy of all press releases may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls . Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on .
