Nenad Borojević, former head of the Institute of Radiology and Oncology in Belgrade & The Doctor at the center of AstraZeneca's Bribery & Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was found hanging in a forest

Nenad Borojević, former head of the Institute of Radiology and Oncology in Belgrade & The Doctor at the center of AstraZeneca's Bribery & Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act was found hanging in a forest.

We haven't heard much new news related to the foreign bribery allegations & violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act regarding AstraZeneca since Nov. 2011. So this news coming out of Serbia appears to be straight out of a John Grisham Novel. We have a Huge Multinational Corporation, Bribery, Corruption, and now a principle Doctor @ the center of the allegations found hanging in the forest. There has to be a very dark and seedy under belly to this story that has yet to be revealed. Makes even a hardened Cynic begin to wonder?

also @ b92 BELGRADE -- The family of former director of the Serbian Institute of Oncology and Radiology Nenad Borojević "still does not believe that he had taken his own life".

Doctor accused of cancer drugs fraud

commits suicide

 Via b92 
01/11/2012

Nenad Borojević, former head of the Institute of Radiology and Oncology in Belgrade, was found hanged in a forest in the city's Košutnjak neighborhood, it was announced.

According to reports, he committed suicide.

It was announced that the police would release a statement detailing the suicide, "and its motives".

Borojević was undergoing trial, but was released from custody for the duration of the court process. He was forbidden to leave his place of residence and was fitted with an electronic surveillance bracelet to monitor his movements.

Borojević and eight others were facing justice accused of, from 2007 until 2009, colluding with pharmaceutical companies to supply them in advance with information on the amount of needed cytostatic drugs, and on public procurement plans for the purchase of the said medication.

At the start of the trial, Borojević denied that he accepted bribes from the companies, and also rejected the prosecution's claim that he headed the group that rigged tenders called to purchase cancer treatment drugs.

The anti-corruption case was tried by the Special Court in Belgrade. Among those accused was the former head of the Pediatric Oncology Ward of the Institute, Zoran Bekić.

IM: Death of ex-Oncology Institute head was suicide

 

Source: Tanjug  Thursday 12.01.2012 | 20:29

BELGRADE -- The family of former director of the Serbian Institute of Oncology and Radiology Nenad Borojević "still does not believe that he had taken his own life". 

                                            A file photo of Nenad Borojević

This is despite a statement on Thursday by Interior Minister Ivica Dačić, who said that "the first analysis point to suicide".

Borojević was found dead, hanging from a tree in a forest-park in Belgrade.

Marko Kastratović, one of Borojević's lawyers, told Tanjug on Thursday that the family had not yet received a police report about his death, or a report by the investigating judge and they did not believe he had killed himself.

“Everything is still open to doubt, and there also are some new circumstances that I cannot speak about at the moment, because it rests with the family to decide. They will decide whether and when to disclose the information to the public,” said Kastratović.

Dačić said earlier today that the investigation into the Borojević's death in Košutnjak was underway and that the body had been sent for autopsy, but the first analysis indicated that he had committed suicide.

However, while the criminal proceedings against Borojević have now been annulled, the proceedings concerning forfeiture of property suspected to have been acquired through criminal acts will be continued against his successors.

Before his death, Borojević was on trial before the Belgrade special court, on charges of unlawfully acquiring RSD 11.2mn through malpractices in connection with procurement of cancer treatment drugs.

He was granted provisional release pending trial with the prohibition of leaving Belgrade and was wearing electronic bracelets by way of which his movements were monitored.

The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime charged Borojević and another eight defendants with making illegal arrangements with officials of pharmaceutical companies concerning getting information about the consumption of cytostatics and the relevant public procurement procedures in advance.
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Background Story:

November 2011

AstraZeneca Indicted In Serbia For Alleged Bribery

http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2011/11/07/astrazeneca-indicted-in-serbia-for-alleged-bribery/

AstraZeneca PLC said Monday in a securities filing that it was criminally indicted in Serbia for alleged bribery.

Drago Prvulovic/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The sign of the British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca is pictured at the plant in Lund, Sweden, on March 2, 2010.

The indictment, which according to the filing was served in August, accuses local AstraZeneca employees of having “made allegedly improper payments to physicians” at the Institute of Oncology and Radiology of Serbia.

In the filing, the company said it has filed a number of procedural motions to dismiss the charges.

“We intend to vigorously defend the matter and have filed a number of pending preliminary procedural objections that ask the Serbian criminal court to dismiss the indictment,” Tony Jewell, an AstraZeneca spokesman, said in an email. “This case is still in preliminary stages, so we are not in a position, at this time to comment further or to predict the outcome.”

The disclosure was made when AstraZeneca reported third-quarter earnings on Oct. 27; the Financial Times reported it (sub req) at the time. Monday’s filing, the 6-K required of foreign issuers, was a bundle of press releases made by the company during October.

Last year, the director of the Institute—as well as several others, including a business unit manager in AstraZeneca’s Belgrade office—were arrested in an alleged bribery scheme that involved favoring some pharmaceutical companies’ products when purchasing cancer-treatment medicine.

The pharmaceutical industry is already staring at an industry-wide probe in the U.S. into alleged foreign bribery. AstraZeneca was one of several companies that disclosed it was being investigated for possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which bars companies and individuals from bribing foreign officials to get or keep business.

Johnson & Johnson settled in April, agreeing to pay $70 million to U.S. authorities. In itslatest annual report, AstraZeneca said it’s cooperating with U.S. authorities on the probe, and it couldn’t predict the scope, duration or outcome of the investigation.

(Correction: The highest-ranking person AstraZeneca person arrested was a business unit manager, not the head of the Belgrade office.)