Former Acclarent CEO William Facteau will instead pay a $1 million fine, and the company’s ex-sales VP Patrick Fabian will pay $500,000, according to the sentence handed down yesterday by U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs in Massachusetts.
The case goes back a decade and involves accusations that Facteau and Fabian improperly marketed the device leading up to Johnson & Johnson’s $785 million acquisition of the company in 2010.
Burroughs apologized to the two men that it took more than four years after their convictions for them to receive a sentence — also saying that the fines were enough punishment for their “crime of greed,” according to a report from Reuters.
Facteau has been CEO of hearing tech company Earlens since 2013, while Fabian’s LinkedIn page lists him as a medical device executive in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
Fabian’s lawyer Frank Libby told MassDevice via email that yesterday’s proceeding follows the jury’s acquittal of Fabian on all felony counts — and was for misdemeanors only. “The judge, who presided over the seven-week-long trial, imposed a fine only,” said Libby, who said Fabian is considering an appeal.
