Germany jails fraudsters who conned cancer patients

Jul 15, 2008, 14:03 GMT

Kassel, Germany - Cracking down on claims of a cancer cure that brought a flicker of hope to many round the world, a German court jailed a trio of men on Tuesday for organized fraud.

The doctor, the businessman and the journalist persuaded dying people in Germany that a Russian food supplement, galavit, could stop cancer. Though it was cheap to manufacture, patients paid thousands of euros for it. Most died.

The 64-year-old businessman was jailed for 87 months, the doctor who 'treated' at least 132 cancer patients was given 68 months and the journalist who spread the false story of the 'wonder drug' was given 36 months.

Two other businessman members of their group were given suspended jail terms and heavy fines. Their lawyers said all would appeal.

Concluding a 16-month trial, the court at Kassel in central Germany said it was sure that galavit did not cure cancer, even if the drug's non-efficacy could only be scientifically demonstrated with trials that might cost 100 million to 500 million euros (160 to 800 million euros).

The judges said the accused must have known galavit would not work and had a duty to tell the patients everything they knew, but did not. Instead, they encouraged false hopes among the dying.

'That was especially odious of you,' the judge told them.

The businessman has already spent two and a half years in pretrial detention, and despite the appeal plans, bail for the doctor was cancelled Tuesday for fear he would flee the country.

Excitement over galavit began in the west in summer 2000, when the accused set up a health institute, telling patients that galavit had been a secret discovery by Russian space scientists and had been used to treat 300 cosmonauts and 30,000 Russian cancer patients.

Credulous people read stories of galavit in mass-circulation newspapers and believed the claims, ignoring doctors' warnings.

The group charged 8,500 euros (13,345 dollars) for a course of treatment at the Carolinum Clinic in Bad Karlshafen, Germany, which was 26 times as much as the drug cost wholesale.