EX-BOLAR EXEC VP-OPERATIONS DICOLA SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS

EX-BOLAR EXEC VP-OPERATIONS DICOLA SENTENCED TO THREE YEARS imprisonment and fined $100,000 on Sept. 9 by Baltimore federal court Judge John Hargrove. Charles DiCola was sentenced for manufacturing an adulterated generic drug product (phenytoin) and making false entries in official batch production records. He pled guilty to those charges on June 4 ("The Pink Sheet" June 8, T&G- 6). DiCola was the last of eight former Bolar executives to plead guilty and is the sixth to be sentenced.

The ex-Bolar exec is eligible for parole after one year served; however, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office said it is unlikely DiCola will be paroled until after he has served two years. DiCola was ordered to report to federal authorities 30 days from the sentencing.

DiCola began creating cover sheets with false information in 1985 after an FDA inspection of Bolar in which the agency found a number of problems with the firms' manufacturing procedures, the prosecution found. DiCola claimed he had made a deal with former Bolar CEO Robert Shulman in May 1987 to stop making falsified cover sheet drugs, but official court documents show that he continued to produce them until November 1989.

Defense attorney Oscar Goodman told the court that because DiCola led a "good, productive, honorable life from the time he was an altar boy...until he got to Bolar" that he should be sentenced to a year or two of community service. "At Bolar, I was trying to do the right thing," DiCola added. "I have not done these things to cheat anyone."

Judge Hargrove responded: "Mr. DiCola got caught in the money trap. He knew he was involved in something that was dead wrong. You can't wink your eye at the violation of law; if you do, you do it at your own peril." DiCola's "entitled to a three-year sentence," Hargrove commented. "In reality, that's not much compared to the ladies [Gloria Schetlick and Susan Long] who were just following orders." Schetlick and Long, who worked under DiCola, were sentenced in July to 18 months apiece without parole.

Two remaining Bolar execs are awaiting sentencing. Ex-Quality Assurance Director Arthur Mendell will go before Judge Hargrove on Sept. 18; Shulman is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 25.