Charges laid in NYC stolen body-parts investigation

4 face charges in New York City stolen body-parts investigation

NEW YORK (AP) - The head of a biomedical firm has been charged with plotting to steal bone and other tissue from cadavers at New York City funeral homes and sell it countrywide for transplants, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

It is the latest development in a burgeoning scandal involving scores of funeral homes and hundreds of looted bodies, including that of Masterpiece Theatre host Alistair Cooke, who died of cancer in 2004.

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes was expected to announce indictments Thursday alleging that Michael Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., ran an illicit body-parts ring, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the indictments still were sealed.

Three co-conspirators also will be charged, the official said.

The District Attorney's Office declined to comment. Mastromarino's lawyer, who has denied any wrongdoing by his client, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Wednesday.

Authorities say the suspects profited by selling the tissue to companies that turned it into products used for disk replacements, dental implants and a variety of other operations performed by unsuspecting doctors across the United States and in Canada.

Late last year, the Food and Drug Administration ordered a recall of the potentially tainted products and warned that patients could have been exposed to HIV and other diseases. However, the FDA insisted the risk of infection was minimal.

No infections have been reported in Canada or the United States since the FDA warning.