Man sells human body parts for fun and profit.

The link.

Quote :

A man who supplied private companies with human cadavers or body parts from UCLA's Willed Body Program as a middleman in a body parts-for-profit scheme was sentenced today to 10 years in prison.


Ernest Nelson, 51, was convicted May 14 of one count each of conspiracy to commit grand theft from the UCLA Willed Body Program, grand theft, grand theft by false pretenses and failure to file an income tax return for 2003 and four counts of filing a false tax return involving the 1999-2002 tax years.

What is the Willed Body Program, you might ask?

Quote :

UCLA's Willed Body Program receives donations from people who have willed their bodies to the school for medical education and research purposes -- primarily for use in training medical students and assisting with scientific and medical research.

But it seems this guy wanted a cut of the cadaver action:

Quote :

During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Marisa Zarate told the six-man, six-woman jury that Nelson took part in a body-parts-for-profit scheme, working with Henry Reid, who headed UCLA's Willed Body Program at the time.

Reid, now 59, pleaded guilty Oct. 17 to conspiracy to commit grand theft and was sentenced Jan. 30 to four years and four months in state prison. Reid was not called to testify during Nelson's trial.

"He was willing to go into a Willed Body Program and cut up body parts for his own personal financial gain," Zarate told reporters outside court after the verdict, noting that neither defendant would be in court if the proper paperwork had been filled out and if the payments had been made to UCLA.

During the trial, Zarate told jurors that the Willed Body Program "became derailed" after Reid and Nelson met and realized they could personally profit if Reid supplied Nelson with human cadavers and body parts for sale to private companies. She said it was illegal for Reid to supply Nelson with the bodies without filling out the required paperwork.

Reid received six cashier's checks from Nelson in 1999 totaling $43,000, then was paid in cash in a move that left "no paper trail," Zarate said.

It's all very strange. And pretty damn gross, when you think about it.

...okay, I'll admit I've been up a while and things are a little fuzzy right now. So am I right in parsing this as the man was arrested for embezzling corpses?

...that's actually pretty cool.

Malganis wrote:

The link.

Quote :

A man who supplied private companies with human cadavers or body parts from UCLA's Willed Body Program as a middleman in a body parts-for-profit scheme was sentenced today to 10 years in prison.


Ernest Nelson, 51, was convicted May 14 of one count each of conspiracy to commit grand theft from the UCLA Willed Body Program, grand theft, grand theft by false pretenses and failure to file an income tax return for 2003 and four counts of filing a false tax return involving the 1999-2002 tax years.

What is the Willed Body Program, you might ask?

Quote :

UCLA's Willed Body Program receives donations from people who have willed their bodies to the school for medical education and research purposes -- primarily for use in training medical students and assisting with scientific and medical research.

But it seems this guy wanted a cut of the cadaver action:

Quote :

During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Marisa Zarate told the six-man, six-woman jury that Nelson took part in a body-parts-for-profit scheme, working with Henry Reid, who headed UCLA's Willed Body Program at the time.

Reid, now 59, pleaded guilty Oct. 17 to conspiracy to commit grand theft and was sentenced Jan. 30 to four years and four months in state prison. Reid was not called to testify during Nelson's trial.

"He was willing to go into a Willed Body Program and cut up body parts for his own personal financial gain," Zarate told reporters outside court after the verdict, noting that neither defendant would be in court if the proper paperwork had been filled out and if the payments had been made to UCLA.

During the trial, Zarate told jurors that the Willed Body Program "became derailed" after Reid and Nelson met and realized they could personally profit if Reid supplied Nelson with human cadavers and body parts for sale to private companies. She said it was illegal for Reid to supply Nelson with the bodies without filling out the required paperwork.

Reid received six cashier's checks from Nelson in 1999 totaling $43,000, then was paid in cash in a move that left "no paper trail," Zarate said.

It's all very strange. And pretty damn gross, when you think about it.

You ain't kiddin', brother. This makes "Celebrian" sound like "Teletubbies".

This Nelson character is obviously six different kinds of crazy; I sincerely hope that when he begins his sentence the prison guards make sure they all get vaccinated for rabies, because he's clearly got some rabid tendencies.

Chris91 wrote:

Malganis wrote:

It's all very strange. And pretty damn gross, when you think about it.

You ain't kiddin', brother. This makes "Celebrian" sound like "Teletubbies".

This Nelson character is obviously six different kinds of crazy; I sincerely hope that when he begins his sentence the prison guards make sure they all get vaccinated for rabies, because he's clearly got some rabid tendencies.

I've got to disagree with you both.

I'm sure everyone's heard about how organs for donation are in short supply and that cadavers and human tissues for study are in just as awful a shape if not worse. So, excluding the possiblity that this guy had some kind of nobler motive in mind, dealing in body parts can be very lucrative. Especially since it is illegal to place monetary value on human parts or to sell organs. Since there's no way to regulate just how much a lung is worth, people who have them to sell can charge any amount they wish. Selling body parts to people who need organs for transplants or parts for study can be a good way to make a lot of money. Assuming he was trying to help people, black market dealings are sometimes the only way some places get any parts to do research with. This whole mess is yet another reason why the American health care system needs help.

My impression is that he figured out a good way to make a lot of money. Plus, none of the cadavers were alive to feel pain when they were taken apart, so it's not like he's some kind of weird sadist. And it doesn't seem that he was selling them to bizarre sex fiends, either. Honestly, I'm not really hating on this guy. He's a thief and a liar so he's got four years in jail coming to him, but he's hardly the scum of the Earth, it seems.

I'm with Keli. This seems like an ordinary fraud, except that the business was about body parts.

I find Kelinci and Lexin to be the most reasonable in this.