A Danish researcher central to the debate over vaccines and autism — and sought for a decade by U.S. authorities — has been arrested in Germany and faces extradition to the U.S. to be tried on charges of stealing a million dollars in research money, Breitbart News has learned.
Poul Thorsen, 64, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2011 on 22 counts of wire fraud and money laundering, but has escaped prosecution in the U.S. because Denmark has chosen not to extradite him, according to previous reports.
The arrest is especially significant to the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement because Thorsen, who is also a physician, is one of the authors of a 2003 study considered the “gold standard” in determining there is no link between autism and vaccines containing a preservative called thimerosal.
Safe vaccine advocates have alleged that the study was deceptive and fatally flawed.
“Thorsen has been number one on the Health and Human Services (HHS) most wanted list for the past ten years,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview. “I’m grateful to Pam Bondi for working with my agency to make sure he’ll finally be brought to justice.”
German authorities arrested Thorsen with an INTERPOL “red notice” in June, a senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official confirmed exclusively to Breitbart News. The official said the DOJ is working with the German government to bring him to the U.S. for trial.
“I don’t know when we can get him back,” the official said, “because we’re dealing with a foreign government and that’s always slow. But we have a great relationship with Germany.”
Thorsen’s wanted bulletin is on the HHS Inspector General’s page.
It states:
From approximately February 2004 until February 2010, Poul Thorsen executed a scheme to steal grant money awarded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). CDC had awarded grant money to Denmark for research involving infant disabilities, autism, genetic disorders, and fetal alcohol syndrome. CDC awarded the grant to fund studies of the relationship between autism and the exposure to vaccines, the relationship between cerebral palsy and infection during pregnancy, and the relationship between developmental outcomes and fetal alcohol exposure.
Thorsen allegedly diverted over $1 million of the CDC grant money to his own personal bank account. Thorsen submitted fraudulent invoices on CDC letterhead to medical facilities assisting in the research for reimbursement of work allegedly covered by the grants.
Those skeptical of certain vaccines — including Kennedy before he joined the Trump administration — have criticized the Denmark study, which had six other authors, for a variety of research errors and changes in protocol that they say guaranteed no link would be found between autism and the mercury-containing preservative.
Secretary Kennedy said the study is widely cited by health officials who argue there is no link to autism from vaccines containing the preservative. That finding was adopted in 2004 by the influential National Academy of Medicine, he said.
It also resulted in the dismissal of some 5,000 injury cases in the federal court designated to handle vaccine injury petitions, Kennedy said.
A book by investigative reporter James Ottar Grundvig titled Master Manipulator: The Explosive True Story of Fraud, Embezzlement, and Government Betrayal at the CDC takes a deep dive into Thorsen’s role in the study.
Former CBS investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson wrote in the forward:
“The fact that the CDC would contract with the likes of Dr. Thorsen on crucial research of vaccines and autism, and never consider setting aside his findings after his twenty-two-count criminal indictment, speaks to the waning credibility of the world’s premiere health agency.”
As an environmental attorney, Kennedy wrote the introduction to the book and alleged Thorsen changed reporting protocols that deceptively showed autism numbers in Denmark were increasing, even after the preservative was removed.
Kennedy also wrote that the final year of the study contracted by the CDC was supposed to be 2001. But when it showed a decline in autism with thimerosal removed, Kennedy wrote — and reiterated in the Breitbart interview — they simply deleted that year from the final study.
An article in Forbes in 2015 argued that Thorsen was not even on an INTERPOL wanted list — now refuted by the DOJ — and portrayed the researcher as an easy “villain” for “conspiracy theorists.”
When Kennedy was asked if going after Thorsen with criminal charges would be seen as the secretary creating an enemy list for his past vaccine advocacy work, he had a short answer.
“He’s been wanted by the HHS long before I got here,” he said.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.