CDC Autism Scientist Indited For Fraud

The fraud in this case wasfinancial, rather than scientific, so it is difficult to judge the impact onthe science if any.  Yet it speaks to theattitude of the individual and plausibly many others to this line ofresearch.  When financial diversion is countenanced,then it speaks to the futility felt regarding the task itself by insiders.

The vaccine debate has not diedand we keep hearing of counter studies that truly question it all.  As always there are bono fide applicationsthat are welcome, yet we all know that the temptation to drum up a scare tosell product must be high.

Into this stew we throw grantdependent researchers and plenty of vested players who benefit from a new scareand away we go.

CDC vaccine scientist who downplayed links to autism indicted by DOJ inalleged fraud scheme

Thursday, April 28, 2011

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)

 (NaturalNews) CDC researcherPoul Thorsen, who famously headed up the "DenmarkStudy" that many claim disproved any link between autism and vaccines, hasbeen indicted in Atlantaby a federal grand jury on charges of wire fraud, money laundering anddefrauding research institutions of grant money.

Poul Thorson is a scientist who formerly worked for the CDC, and over the lastseveral years, he oversaw millions of dollars in grant money that was used toconduct research to "prove" that vaccines have no link to autism. Dr.Thorson's research papers include the famous "Danish Study"entitled Thimerosal and the occurrence of autism: negative ecologicalevidence from Danish population-based data.

(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...)

This paper concludes that thimerosal, the mercury-based preservative used invaccines around the world, has no statistically significant link to autism. Itis one of the key papers used by vaccination proponents who argue thatthimerosal is safe to inject into young children. That Poul Thorson'scredibility is now being called into question by a federal indictment of fraudand money laundering will, of course, have ripple effects throughout both thevaccine industries and autism support groups (more about that below).

Be sure to see our "Web of Alleged Fraud" chart which accompaniesthis article: http://www.naturalnews.com/files/We...

Follow the money

According to the official announcement of the indictment, Thorsen wasawarded grant money by the CDC as far back as the 1990s. He arranged for thegrant money to be awarded to an entity in Denmark, where he provided"input and guidance" for the research projects.

From 2000 to 2009, the CDC awarded $11 million in grant money to two Denmarkgovernment agencies to study, among other things, the possible link betweenvaccines and autism. In 2002, Thorsen moved to Denmark and became the"principal investigator" for the grant money, responsible foradministering the research money that the CDC awarded.

But here's where things get interesting: According to the Dept. of Justice,Thorsen began allegedly stealing grant money by submitting fraudulentexpense documents that were supposedly related to the Danish study. Thesefraudulent expense documents were given to the Danish government, Aarhus Universityand Odense University Hospital,the institutions involved in the research.

From February 2004 through June 2008, says the DOJindictment, Thorsen allegedly submitted over a dozen fraudulentinvoices requesting reimbursement for expenses that were fabricated.Interestingly, these allegedly fraudulent invoices were signed by alaboratory section chief at the CDC, indicating that someone inside the CDC waseither duped by Thorsen or potentially involved in the alleged fraud.

What was Thorsen claiming in these allegedly fraudulent invoicesrequesting reimbursement? He claimed that a CDC laboratory hadconducted work in conjunction with the research and was owed funds out of thegrant money. These invoices were then handed over to Aarhus University,where Thorsen held a faculty position. Aarhus then transferred "hundredsof thousands of dollars to bank accounts held at the CDC Federal Credit Unionin Atlanta,"says the DOJ.

But here's the clever part: Those bank accounts were not official CDC accountsat all. They were allegedly private bank accounts belonging to noneother than Dr. Poul Thorsen.

Once the money was transferred into Thorsen's private accounts, Thorsen"allegedly withdrew it for his own personal use, buying a home in Atlanta, a Harley Davidsonmotorcycle, and Audi and Honda vehicles, and obtaining numerous cashier'schecks, from the fraud proceeds," says the DOJ.

According to government documents, Dr. Poul Thorsen, one of the key researchersin "disproving" any link between vaccines and autism, allegedlydefrauded the scientific research community of over one million dollars.

See the chart we've assembled for this to help show you the web of money andinfluence at work here:

http://www.naturalnews.com/files/We...

Aarhus distances itself from Thorsen

More details are revealed through a statement issued in January by Aarhus University,which sought to sever its ties with Thorsen. It says, "Unfortunately, aconsiderable shortfall in funding at Aarhus University associatedwith the CDC grant was discovered. In investigating the shortfalls associatedwith the grant, DASTI and Aarhus University became aware of two alleged CDCfunding documents as well as a letter regarding funding commitments allegedlywritten by Randolph B. Williams of CDC's Procurement Grants Office which wasused to secure advances from Aarhus University. Upon investigation by CDC, asuspicion arose that the documents are forgeries."

(http://www.rescuepost.com/files/tho...)

This letter goes on to state that Dr Thorsen was essentially hoodwinking othersinto thinking he was still a faculty member at Aarhus University:

In March 2009, Dr. Thorsen resigned his faculty position at Aarhus University.In the meantime, it has come to the attention of AarhusUniversity that Dr Thomsen hascontinued to act in such a manner as to create the impression that he stillretains a connection to Aarhus University after thetermination of his employment by the university. Furthermore, it has come tothe attention of Aarhus University that Dr Poul Thorsen has held full-timepositions at both Emory University and Aarhus Universitysimultaneously. Dr Thorsen's double Full-time employment was unauthorised byAarhus University, and he engaged in this employment situation despite theexpress prohibition of Aarhus University.

The federal indictment against Thorsen

Today, Thorsen is facing 13 counts of wire fraud and 9 counts ofmoney laundering. NaturalNews spoke with the Department of Justice andconfirmed that extradition proceedings are under way to bring Thorsento the United States from Denmark,although no particular timetable for that extradition has been announced.

Thorsen now faces up to 260 years in prison from the wire fraudcharges, and up to an additional 90 years in prison for the money launderingcharges, plus a total of $22.5 million in possible fines. In addition, thefederal indictment also contains a so-called "forfeiture provision"which seeks the forfeiture of the personal property Dr. Thorsen allegedlypurchased with money he stole from the CDC's grant activities: A house inAtlanta, two cars and a Harley Davidson motorcycle.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Stephen H. McClain and Michael J. Brown,both out of the Northern District of Georgia(Atlanta). ThisAtlanta officehas a well-known reputation for going after crooks, regardless of the politicalimplications. This is the same office, for example, that indicted Atlanta's ownmayor for corruption and tax charges in 2004 (http://www.justice.gov/tax/usaopres...).

The prosecuting attorney for that case, Sally Quillian Yates, is the sameattorney contributing to this case. She said of Thorsen: "Grant money fordisease research is a precious commodity. When grant funds are stolen, we losenot only the money, but also the opportunity to better understand and curedebilitating diseases. This defendant is alleged to have orchestrated a schemeto steal over $1 million in CDC grant money earmarked for autism research. Wewill now seek the defendant’s extradition for him to face federal charges inthe United States."

Understand what is being alleged here: That Thorsen stole taxpayerdollars intended for medical research, then pocketed them in his ownprivate bank accounts and used the money to buy luxury items for his personaluse. This is a man with a history of strong ties to the CDC, researchuniversities and medical journals. This is a person whose research has beenwidely quoted by the vaccine apologists who say vaccines are safe. And now, inthe midst of all this, how many mainstream newspapers do you see coveringThorsen's indictment and his ties to the CDC? Virtually none.

This is the great untold story of an alleged criminal ring operatinginside the CDC, with the purpose of falsifying research that would"disprove" any links between vaccines and toxic side effects.

The upshot of all this

What you read above are the facts of the case. What you're about toread is my own opinion analysis as the editor of NaturalNews. While I spokewith the U.S.Attorney's Office on these matters, what you're about to read are my ownopinions, not theirs.

For starters, given that the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA), the New England Journal of Medicine(NEJM), the American Journal of Epidemiology and many other medical journalshave published Dr. Thorsen's work, will they retract his scientificpapers now that he has been indicted for fraud and money laundering?

Or do the medical journals only retract papers only from those whose researchsuggests that vaccines do, in fact, have a link to intestinal disorders andneurological problems in children? Remember, of course, that the conventionalmedical industry almost couldn't wait to denounce Dr. Andrew Wakefield'sresearch, based on only the flimsiest of allegations which don't even stand upto basic scrutiny. And yet when one of their own "insider" scientistslike Dr. Poul Thorsen is indicted for fraud and money laundering, they don'tquestion the integrity of his scientific research in the least. In fact, theCDC is now publicly defending his research! His research is still openly citedon the CDC's own website! (http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/autism/ar...)

So don't hold your breath waiting for the medical journals to denounce Dr.Thorsen's research. His so-called "scientific findings" are such animportant cornerstone in the false "scientific" evidence dispellingany link between vaccines and autism that they would probably let his researchstand even if he was convicted of rape, murder and incest. No criminal is toocriminal for the medical journals, it seems -- especially if his conclusionssupport the vaccine industry.

Secondly, did you notice that the allegedly falsified invoices submitted by Dr.Thosen to Aarhus University were signed off by a CDClab section chief? Someone inside the CDC, in other words, was enablingDr. Thorsen to allegedly engage in this fraud. The question is: Was this persona co-conspirator?

To answer all this, you have to keep one thing in perspective: During the yearsof 2006 - 2008 when all this alleged fraud was taking place, the vaccineindustry was under increasing attack by scientists who questioned their safety.The evidence linking vaccines with autism and gastrointestinal disorders wasbecoming increasingly evident and increasingly difficult to cover up. Dr. JulieGerberding was at the help of the CDC, and she was no doubt trying to impressher future employers at Merck, where she is now the president of Merck's globalvaccine division, having left the CDC the very next year following Dr.Thorsen's alleged money laundering scheme.

Question: Did the CDC actively enable and support Dr. Thorsen's alleged fraudin order to "pay him off" for falsifying the research that wouldsupposedly disprove any link between vaccines and autism? And was this beingmasterminded by Dr. Julie Gerberding as part of her effort to prove her loyaltyto Merck, where she now runs the global vaccine division?

Consider the ties here: Dr. Poul Thorsen used to have a CDC email address(pct9@cdc.gov). He was on the CDC payroll and spoke at CDC events. He had aprivate bank account at the CDC Credit Union!

Dr. Thorsen had enough pull with the CDC to get his pet grant project approved,even to the point of having the money wired overseas to a university in Denmarkwhere -- guess what? -- he just happened to be a faculty member with"oversight" of where the money went. For Dr. Thorsen to have pulledoff his alleged fraud, he would have needed help from inside theCDC -- from the "lab section chief" who signed his invoices thatwere submitted to Aarhus University for"reimbursement." Those funds, of course, were then allegedly used byDr. Thorsen to purchase a home, cars and a motorcycle, among other things.

Was Thorsen a patsy for a larger scheme?

I see two possibilities here: Either the CDC conspired with Dr.Thorsen, or they set him up to take the fall. Every great scam needs a fallguy, you see, and the vaccine industry's fraudulent scientific cover-up of thetruth about vaccine dangers is one of the greatest scams ever pulled off in thehistory of human civilization. The CDC has its fingerprints all over this case,as a former employer of Thorsen, the source of the money (which is reallytaxpayer money, of course), and even the source of the "lab sectionchief" employee who allegedly helped make all this happen.

To believe that the CDC may have conspired with Dr. Thorsen is not even astretch. The CDC, as we've already shown, is deeply in bed with the vaccineindustry and the drug companies. That's why the former head of the CDC is nowthe president of Merck's vaccine division (http://www.naturalnews.com/027789_D...). It's also why theCDC urges everyone to "get vaccinated" at the first sign of aseasonal flu or an emerging epidemic. The pro-vaccine bias of the CDC has beenblatant for years.

Other CDC scientists also involved in the fraud?

Writers Dan Olmsted and Mark Blaxill from the AgeOfAutism.com websitehave done additional research on this point, and they've found some solidevidence that should raise questions about the CDC's involvement in Thorsen'salleged fraud. As they published recently in an article entitled PoulThorsen's Mutating Resume:

(http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/03/...)

In addition, several current CDC employees including Drs. Diana Schendel,Marshalyn Yeargin-Allsopp and Catherine Rice were affiliated with Thorsen'snow-defunct research group. Age of Autism has obtained Internet-archived pagesfrom the Web site of the North Atlantic Neuro-Epidemiology Alliances (NANEA)that list the members of the “Atlanta autism team” including Schendel,Yeargin-Allsopp and Rice, all of whom have been in leadership positions in theCDC’s autism epidemiology projects. Schendel is described as NANEA’s “coordinatorat Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA.”

This article goes on to say, by the way, that Thorsen was also working with theAmerican Psychiatric Association (APA) to alter the definition of"autism" in the DSM-V (the psychiatric industry's bible of diagnosisand treatment).

The CDC, of course, has downplayed the whole thing. It released a statementthat attempted to characterize Poul Thorsen's alleged fraud as a"fiscal" matter, not something involving his science, as if to implythat a man can be a crook when it comes to his money, but an angel when itcomes to his science.

They said:

"CDC is aware of the allegations by Aarhus University against PoulThorsen, a Danish doctor who participated in CDC funded research. For the past10 years, CDC has had a cooperative agreement with the Danish Agency forScience, Technology and Innovation (DASTI) and AarhusUniversity in Denmark toconduct research studies on issues such as cerebral palsy, autism, alcohol usein pregnancy and Down syndrome. Dr. Thorsen was one of many co-authors on theseresearch projects. All of these were subject to extensive peer review and wehave no reason to suspect that there are any issues related to the integrity ofthe science. The allegations that are fiscal in nature against Dr. Thorsen arebeing looked into by appropriate authorities."

(http://www.ageofautism.com/2010/03/...)

But the other possibility in all this is that someone inside the CDC wanted toprotect the CDC's reputation from all the quackery and fraud they saw happeningthere. Perhaps they were clued in to Dr. Thorsen's alleged money laundering,and they were sick of it. Maybe they saw Dr. Gerberding collect amulti-million-dollar salary from Merck while the rest of the people were leftbehind at the CDC collecting government wages. This is conjecture, of course,but it seems reasonable to suppose that someone from within the CDC could bethe whistleblower on all this.

And if that someone reads this, we want to hear from you. Feel free to leakinternal documents to NaturalNews any time you want, through our publicfeedback form. We protect the identities of all our sources and we areinterested in seeing justice served. If there is an element in the CDCthat is knowingly engaged in criminal fraud and conspiracy, that elements needsto be exposed and removed from the CDC for the good of the entire institution.Otherwise, more of this kind of news will only come out in the years ahead, andthe reputation of the CDC will only continue to plummet.

Don't think the world isn't noticing already: Just two years ago, the CDC'sreputation was relatively high even among natural health practitioners. Butafter watching the CDC's behavior through these last couple of flu scares, moreintelligent people now fully realize the CDC has become little more than amouthpiece for the pharmaceutical industry. It was the CDC, after all, thathelped hype up the Swine Flu scare that resulted in billions of taxpayerdollars being needlessly spent on vaccines which were mostly thrown away unusedafter the scare passed.

DOJ earns street cred

The real hero in all this, it turns out, is the Department ofJustice (DOJ). Rather than bowing to the profit interests of the vaccineindustry, the DOJ is going after Dr. Poul Thorsen based solely on his allegedcriminal behavior, not based on politics or science. It's refreshing to knowthat some elements of the federal government are actually doing good work. I'veseen this before from the DOJ in its indictments of various pharmaceuticalcompanies, and I continue to believe that the DOJ may be the last remaininghope for justice at the federal level.

I did tell my contact at the DOJ, however, that they should watch out forpressure from the vaccine industry. There will be efforts made, no doubt, tolimit the exposure of this case to only Dr. Poul Thorsen and not involveany other CDC employees or officials. Honestly, in talking to the DOJabout this case, I think they vastly underestimate the level of commitment thedrug companies have to their vaccine profit machine; meaning they also vastlyunderestimate the tactics that are traditionally used by these companies tolimit their damage.

For example, most NaturalNews readers know full well that I've had multiplethreats placed on my life, I've been stalked, I've been impersonated, and therehave been assassination attempts made on other leaders in the natural healthmovement who have dared to question vaccines. What the DOJ doesn't know (but Ihope they will soon realize) is that the drug companies will stop at nothing toget their way: They will poison your dog, hack your website, threaten yourfamily, leave nasty notes in your mailbox, plant fake bombs under your car anddo whatever else it takes to get you to back off.

I know that DOJ prosecutors and attorneys will be reading this, so let me sharesomething with you that you need to know: When you go up against thepharmaceutical industry, you are doing battle with what isessentially organized crime. We're talking a modern-day mob here, and theywill not hesitate to engaged in attempted bribery, corruption or threats of violenceto get their way. If the DOJ begins to uncover a deeper connection betweenThorsen, the CDC and the drug companies, beware of the backlash headed your wayfrom both the industry and even the top folks in D.C. The depth of the fraudand crimes being committed right now in the pursuit of vaccine profits isnothing short of astonishing. We've reported on many here at NaturalNews, andyet we've just barely scratched the surface of the real story.

Even the vaccine pushers in the online world engage in precisely the same kindof criminal behavior; fixing online polls, creating robots to maliciouslyattack anti-vax websites, engaging in the widespread posting of falseinformation, and so on. This is, of course, a reflection of the exact samepsychopathic criminal-minded behavior found inside the vaccine industry itself-- an industry staffed by sick-minded human beings who belong in federalprison, not running research for the CDC.

As the editor of NaturalNews, I have publicly, on numerous occasions, calledfor the Department of Justice to investigate the CEOs of drug companies forfraud, racketeering and conspiracy. While this indictment of Dr. Poul Thorsenisn't all that, it's at least a step in the right direction that may helpuncover the truth about what really goes on behind the scenes with taxpayer"research money."

vaccine research is based on outright fraud?

It also raises the question: How many other scientific researchers andgrant money administrators are on the take, pocketing taxpayer dollars thatwere intended for research purposes? How many of these people falsify theirresearch data in order to keep getting grant money injections into theirprivate bank accounts? Just how deep does the collusion between the corruptscientific community and the fraudulent vaccine industry really go?

And, of course, what is the CDC's role in all this? It has been one of the topcheerleaders for the vaccine industry for at least the past decade. Now, we arelearning that a CDC section chief knowingly or unknowingly colluded with aphysician and researcher who has now been indicted for fraud and moneylaundering. How high up the CDC does this alleged fraud really go?

I don't know the answer to that. But it's not that complicated to figure out,especially when CDC employees become Big Pharma vaccine employees, andvice-versa. It's all a giant government-corporate-medicine orgy where thescientific trust was abandoned long ago in favor of Big Pharma profits.

We'll do our best here at NaturalNews to find out the rest of this story andbring it to you. That's what we do. That's why we're the 4th largestalternative news website in the world (and growing every day). We bring you thenews about the fraud and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry that most mainstreammedia sources won't dare touch. Subscribe to my free daily email newsletter toreceive a daily email that I send out, containing links to the top stories youneed to know about. It's free, so sign up now at:http://www.naturalnews.com/readerre...

By the way, I strongly recommend that you become a regular readers of www.AgeOfAutism.com whichprovides outstanding reporting on these issues. Make that site one of yourregular sources of information. You'll be amazed by what they are able toreport.

Learn more:

http://www.naturalnews.com/032216_Thorsen_fraud.html#ixzz1Kptq5ByL