Citizens United, a conservative advocacy group, is seeking records behind to an unusual

Justice Department decision to disregard a federal grand jury indictment against a major
Democratic Party donor who was charged with ordering a series of illegal medical procedures
that resulted in the deaths of three elderly patients, the Daily Caller News Foundation has
learned.
A federal grand jury in 2009 named Hansjorg Wyss, CEO of Synthes, Inc., as Person No. 7 in
its indictment, and charged he personally directed subordinates in executive management
meetings to bypass federal drug safety rules to market an untested but potentially lucrative
compound for spines.
Rather than go to trial, Justice Department attorneys privately arranged a settlement in which
four top Synthes executives went to prison, but Wyss himself walked free. His company was
fined $22 million.
Wyss, whose net worth has been estimated at $6.1 billion, has been a major Democratic Party
donor who has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to liberal activist groups, including $5
million to both the liberal Center for American Progress and to the Clinton Foundation.
CAP is one of the most aggressive liberal activist groups in Washington, D.C. and was founded
by John Podesta who now serves as Hillary Clintons national campaign director. Wyss has
served on the CAPs board for years.
His private foundation, called the Wyss Foundation, reported $2.1 billion in assets in its 2013 tax
filing with the Internal Revenue Service.
Citizens United, the organization, widely known for winning a landmark Supreme Court decision
on campaign finance, yesterday filed a Freedom of Information Act request with two divisions of
the Justice Department.
David Bossie, its president said the FOIA requests were filed to determine if politics played a
role in the settlement.
For years weve seen partisan politics infiltrate the Obama Department of Justice, said he said
in a statement to TheDCNF.
Hansjorg Wyss is a major supporter of liberal causes, including a $5 million contributor to the
Clinton Foundation. With these FOIA requests, Citizens United is seeking to determine if
politics played any role in the Department of Justices decision not to seek charges against Mr.
Wyss in their case involving a Wyss-led company that illegally experimented on patients who
died.
Citizens United has filed FOIA requests with both the Justice Departments criminal division and
the office that operates its U.S. Attorneys.
In a filing before the Justice Departments criminal division, Citizens United stated, the

government did not prosecute chief executive officer Hansjrg Wyss, who was identified
in the indictment as having made the decision to bypass the governments clinical trial
approval process.

Given Mr. Wysss role in above-referenced matter, Citizens United seeks any and all
Criminal Division records that would shed light on the governments decision not to
prosecute Mr. Wyss, the FOIA letter states.
That FOIA identifies attorneys who were in the criminal division between 2009 and
2011, the period the Justice Department was handling the case, including Lanny Breuer,
Assistant Attorney General; Steven Tyrrell, chief of the Fraud Section; Paul Pelletier, the
Fraud Sections principal deputy chief for litigation; and Steve Linick, a deputy chief in
the Fraud Section.
A separate Freedom of Information Act request was filed with the Executive Office of
U.S. Attorneys which centrally processes the records of all U.S. Attorneys.
Citizens United identified six prosecuting attorneys who were serving during the period
the Wyss case was being handled, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary Crawley, who
the Wyss case.
At the time of the settlement, Crawley told the Federal Judge Legrome Davis court Synthes
used these people, these elderly patients, as guinea pigs and ignored time-honored principles
of informed consent.
Crawley called it human experimentation, noting, they all have undermined the fundamental
procedural protections that separate a civilized society from an uncivilized society when it
comes to human experimentation.
A Washington state judge recently permitted a separate civil lawsuit to go forward against Wyss
under the states racketeering laws.
The state court agreed that Wyss could face charges he was running a criminal profiteering
enterprise through the illegal use of a drug that resulted in the death of Reba Goldman 67-year
old woman who died on the Synthes operating table.
The substance was so lethal the medical compound killed pigs in animal experiments conducted
by Dr. Jens Chapman, a top level Synthes consultant who received millions of dollars in an
endowment from Wyss.
Dr. Chapman was the spinal surgeon who operated on Goldman and is a defendant in the civil
suit.

Daniel Hannula, who legally represents Goldens daughter, told TheDCNF Wyss entered into a
criminal enterprise to perform illegal and experimental surgeries on patients, Daniel Hannula,
Goldens attorney, told The DCNF.
Wyss also settled for $1.5 million a legal case in which Jackie Long, a former Wyss foundation
employee, charged the billionaire sexually assaulted her. Long was particularly upset that in

2013 Wyss committed $5 million to the Clinton Foundation for a project purportedly to help
women and girls.