BALTIMORE, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The chief of the geriatric psychiatry branch of the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health has admitted taking unauthorized fees from a drug maker.
Pearson "Trey" Sunderland III pleaded guilty in federal court in Baltimore Friday, the Baltimore Sun reported. Under his plea agreement, he must spend two years on supervised probation and forfeit $300,000.
Sunderland, a top Alzheimer's disease researcher, acknowledged that he did not report to superiors $285,000 he received in consulting fees from Pfizer Inc.
"Sunderland remained on the payroll for years after NIH was given information from this (committee) about this conflict and while the Surgeon General sat on an NIH recommendation that he be removed," Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., the ranking Democrat on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said in a statement. "Will a criminal conviction for conflict of interest be enough to get someone fired from NIH?"
The National Institutes of Health has admitted that at least 40 scientists were involved in similar conflicts of interest. They were disciplined or forced into retirement.
