California Man Sentenced for Fraudulent Sale of Human Tissue

A California man has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for harvesting human tissue from dead bodies in funeral homes and selling it to tissue banks for implantation in medical patients after falsifying documents about how the people had died.

Philip Joe Guyett, 42, of Simi Valley, was found guilty of three counts of mail fraud and also ordered to pay restitution to his victims, the United States Attorney’s office said.

“The heinous nature of Mr. Guyett’s crimes cannot be overstated, and today’s sentence should give others working in industries critical to the public health a clear signal that this type of reckless dishonesty comes with serious consequences,” said United States Attorney George E.B. Holding in announcing the prison term.

Defendant Engaged in Fraud, Deception

According to federal prosecutors, Guyett engaged in the illegal conduct through his corporation, Donor Referral Services, Inc. The company recovered human tissue from bodies at funeral homes in North Carolina and sold it to tissue banks across the United States. In the process, Guyett violated Food and Drug Administration regulations, which require specific medical information about the deceased be collected and analyzed by the person harvesting the tissue.

Certain medical conditions, if found in deceased bodies, preclude tissue from those people being used for implantation in other patients. Guyett’s firm either failed to collect that data or falsified documents to cover up disqualifying medical conditions, officials said.

Guyett knowingly falsified information on the medical history reports concerning the medical histories of the deceased donors from whom tissue was harvested so it could be sold to tissue banks for later implantation, prosecutors said.

As a result, an unknown number of patients across the United States may have been implanted with tissue that was not suitable.

The FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations led the investigation into Guyett’s crimes, officials said.

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