Medical device maker Olympus Corp., already under federal investigation for its role in superbug outbreaks, has agreed to pay $646 million to resolve criminal and civil probes into illegal kickbacks and bribes to doctors and hospitals.

Federal prosecutors said Tuesday that the company’s settlement is the largest ever for violations of the U.S. Anti-Kickback Statute. A portion of the company’s payout, $22.8 million, will resolve similar bribery allegations in Latin America.

U.S. investigators said the Tokyo-based company’s “greed-fueled kickback scheme” from 2006 to 2011 used research grants, consulting deals, luxury trips, gifts of hot-air ballooning and spa treatments and free equipment to induce influential doctors to order more Olympus devices at prominent hospitals and help the company keep out competitors. The devices included gastrointestinal scopes, which have been tied to deadly outbreaks of drug-resistant bacteria.

In one case, according to the federal criminal complaint, senior Olympus executives agreed to pay for three doctors to spend a week in Japan “as a quid pro quo” for a prominent California institution to switch from a competitor’s products to Olympus.

After the trip, one of the doctors thanked Olympus for “providing so much extra entertainment that we did not expect,” according to the government’s complaint.

Prosecutors declined to name any medical centers or doctors in their complaint.

In other instance, Olympus gave a doctor $400,000 worth of free endoscopes and other supplies for his private practice from 2006 to 2010, prosecutors said. Olympus believed this doctor could persuade a “leading New York medical center” to spend millions of dollars on devices, according to the government complaint.

Read More – Source: Endoscope Maker Olympus Agrees To $646 Million Settlement Over Kickbacks : Shots – Health News : NPR