NEW YORK (AP) - Calling it a danger to public heath, the Food and Drug Administration shut down a biomedical firm on Friday amid allegations the company covertly harvested human tissue for profit at funeral homes in the New York city area and elsewhere. The FDA sanction against Biomedical Tissue Services of Fort Lee, N.J., was the latest development in a brewing scandal involving scores of funeral homes and hundreds of looted bodies, including that of "Masterpiece Theater" host Alistair Cooke.
Federal and local authorities have been investigating whether the firm's chief executive, Michael Mastromarino, and a business associate paid off funeral homes so they could take bone and skin from the dead without their families' knowledge.
Investigators say some body parts came from elderly people and perhaps victims of infectious diseases, and the paperwork was doctored to say they had been younger and healthier.
The tissue was sold to other companies around the country that process implants and grafts used in a variety of surgeries. Late last year, the FDA ordered a recall of the potentially tainted products and warned that an untold number of patients could have been exposed to HIV and other diseases.
Further investigation has uncovered evidence that Biomedical Tissue Services failed to screen for contaminated tissue, the FDA said on Friday. The agency also found that death certificates in the company's files were at odds with those on file with the state over the age of the deceased and the cause and time of death.
Allowing the firm to remain open "would present a danger to public health by increasing the risk of communicable disease transmission," said Margaret Glavin, the FDA's associate director of regulatory affairs.
Mastromarino's attorney, Mario Gullucci, confirmed the company had ceased operations, but said his client denied the allegations and planned to go to court so he could reopen.
"Everything that was done was done according to FDA regulations," he said.
He also denied that Mastromarino took body parts without permission.
"Nobody was carving up bodies in unsanitary conditions," he said. "He was above board on everything."
The prosecutors, who are weighing possible criminal charges against Mastromarino, declined comment.
