Hamburg Regional Court convicts doctor of bribery and fraud

The Hamburg Regional Court sentenced a doctor to a total prison sentence of four and a half years for bribery and gang-related fraud in connection with expensive cancer drugs. The court also ordered the confiscation of the proceeds of the crime amounting to almost 972,000 euros from the 65-year-old, as a spokeswoman said. Penalties from an earlier case were included in the prison sentence.

The court was convinced that the oncologist from Reinbek, who had already been convicted, had made an agreement with a Harburg pharmacist under which he was to receive prescriptions for the preparation of high-priced cancer drugs - so-called cytostatics. The doctor received financial benefits for this.

There was also a corresponding agreement with a management consultant who had connections to a pharmacy in Aschaffenburg.

According to the information, the 66-year-old management consultant was sentenced to a suspended prison sentence of eleven months by the chamber last week in a separate trial for bribery in the healthcare system. Both judgments are not yet legally binding.

The proceedings against the co-defendant pharmacist were temporarily discontinued in July against payment of a fine.