Youth Research Fraud: Three More Found Guilty

In the US, following last year's imprisonment of Youth Research President Karen Forcade for falsifying data in connection with child safety tests on cigarette lighters, her colleague Joyce Serventi and two of the firm's former contractors have also been convicted.

Now bankrupt Youth Research worked for manufacturers on child safety studies on cigarette and multi-purpose lighters, and the fraud affected some 97 tests between 1994 and 2005. These tests are required in order to ensure that the lighters are child-resistant, and must be conducted in accordance with a specific protocol.

A CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) Health Scientist first discovered the scam while examining routine test reports submitted by the Tampa, FL-based research agency. The use of the same children in repeated tests with inconsistent reported birth dates, genders, and schools, and the presence of similar handwriting, misspelled names, and forged parental signatures raised suspicions and sparked CPSC's investigation.

In January 2007, CPSC referred the case to the US Department of Justice's Office of Consumer Protection Litigation, which found evidence that fraudulent data was submitted in connection with almost every test performed by Youth Research, or its contractors.

Last September, Forcade was sentenced to eight months in prison for falsifying the child safety tests. Following the jail term, she was also sentenced to spend eight months under house arrest, and pay a $10,000 fine.

Serventi has now pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy for her role in falsifying the data, and has been sentenced to two years of probation and a $3,000 fine.

Contractor Stephanie Van Treuren, who previously owned First Step Pre School Inc, has been sentenced to two years' probation followed by three months of home detention and a $3,000 fine for submitting false data.

In addition, Nancy Buhrmann, formerly Operations Manager of focus group specialist TAi-Tampa Bay, Inc, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison and two years supervised release for destroying paper and electronic documents in connection with the investigation. Buhrmann, who supervised child resistance testing of lighters for Forcade and Youth Research, has filed an appeal against the sentence.

CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum commented: 'Firms are on notice that fraudulent testing of hazardous products such as lighters will not be tolerated by CPSC. Child-resistant lighters prevent young children from starting deadly fires.'

Web site: www.cpsc.gov .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.