BALTIMORE — A federal judge on Friday spared a convicted National Institutes of Health researcher, Dr. P. Trey Sunderland III, any prison time but ordered him to hand over $300,000 in illicit payments he took from a major drug company.
U.S. District Judge J. Frederic Motz also sentenced Sunderland to two years of supervised probation and 400 hours of community service.
"Obviously, this was unacceptable conduct," Motz said.
Sunderland had pleaded guilty Dec. 8 to a criminal conflict of interest related to his payments from Pfizer Inc. The sentence matched a plea agreement in November between prosecutors and Sunderland's lawyers.
Sunderland took Pfizer's money from 1998 to 2003 while he collaborated with the company in his official federal role as a researcher of Alzheimer's disease.
Under the government-Pfizer collaboration, Sunderland's NIH staff drew spinal fluid from hundreds of volunteers and turned over the samples to Pfizer. The drug company analyzed the samples for genetic clues that might help develop a treatment for Alzheimer's, a debilitating and fatal malady. NIH officials approved the scientific work.
But at the same time, Sunderland was collecting consulting fees from Pfizer related to the project and had not sought permission for such an arrangement, as required by NIH rules. He also did not report the income on his annual financial disclosure forms. At one point he told an internal ethics official that he had no interests outside the government.
NIH officials have said that if Sunderland had asked to moonlight for Pfizer, the request probably would have been denied because the activity overlapped with his official duties.
"It is illegal for any federal employee to make an official decision that directly affects their financial interest, unless they
Sunderland told Motz on Friday that he took "responsibility for these deeds." Glancing at prepared notes, Sunderland said that when he reconstructed in his mind the events that led to a criminal conviction, "I don't have an explanation."
"This process has humbled me in a way that I have never experienced before," he said. He added, his voice faltering, "This has been the most difficult thing I've ever had to do."
An assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, Martin J. Clarke, said that Sunderland's guilty plea, to one misdemeanor count, would serve as a "deterrent to future such conduct in the federal government."
