Cardiac Arrest: Five Heart-Stopping Years as a CEO On the Feds' Hit-List

by Howard Root, Stephen Saltarelli

Overview

Who polices America’s prosecutors? And when they set their sights on an innocent CEO, can he survive a 5-year, $25 million legal labyrinth to save the company he built, and himself from prison? Howard Root started Vascular Solutions with little more than a dream and an idea for a single medical device. Fifteen years later, his Minnesota company had created over 500 American jobs and developed more than 50 new medical devices that saved and improved lives. But in 2011, the federal government threatened to destroy his company and put Howard behind bars for years. Why? Federal prosecutors had been sold a bill of goods – a tall tale peddled by a money-hungry ex-employee out for revenge. All over one device. A device that never harmed a single patient and made up less than 1% of the company s sales. The investigation revealed the charges to be baseless, but the scalp-hunting prosecutors didn’t back off. Instead they dug in – threatening witnesses, misleading grand juries, and strategically leaking secret documents. Whatever it took to pressure a headline-grabbing settlement. Howard Root stood up to the shakedown. Five years, 121 attorneys and $25 million in legal fees later, his life’s work and freedom rested in the hands of 12 strangers in a San Antonio jury room. Would Howard and his company be vindicated by the verdict, or had he made the biggest mistake of his life by challenging the federal government? Cardiac Arrest is the eye-opening true story of life on the Feds’ hit-list, told from the desk of a CEO who decided to fight back. Follow Howard from the boardroom to the courtroom, as he tells the inside story of the case that sparked outrage in the pages of The Wall Street Journal and triggered a congressional investigation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781483589527
Publisher:	BookBaby
Publication date:	01/16/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	374
Sales rank:	916,384
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Steve Saltarelli is a screenwriter from Washington, D.C., and a former white-collar criminal defense attorney who was part of the team that defended Vascular Solutions at trial.

Table of Contents

Step 1 Symptoms

Chapter 1 Ice Cream Subpoena 1

Chapter 2 The Briefing 5

Chapter 3 The 20 Million Dollar Lie 12

Chapter 4 DOJ Blind Date 20

Chapter 5 Global Crisis 25

Chapter 6 My Lawyer Bill 32

Chapter 7 Grand Fury 39

Chapter 8 I Need a Lawyer, Bud Needs a Body 52

Chapter 9 Next Stop: Indictment 61

Step 2 Diagnosis

Chapter 10 The Ham Sandwich 75

Chapter 11 An Improbable CEO 86

Chapter 12 Run 98

Chapter 13 How'd We End Up Here? 104

Chapter 14 Time 115

Chapter 15 Dress Rehearsal 121

Chapter 16 Hand Picked 135

Chapter 17 Luck 150

Step 3 Treatment

Chapter 18 The Rodeo Comes to Town 161

Chapter 19 Five Years, 12 Peers 163

Chapter 20 Opening Moves 174

Chapter 21 Hijacked 181

Chapter 22 Experts 196

Chapter 23 Experts: Part Two 204

Chapter 24 The Truth 218

Chapter 25 Playing Dirty 232

Chapter 26 13 Hours as a Sleep-Deprived Associate 241

Chapter 27 Parade of Ignorance 250

Chapter 28 Operation Big Secret 264

Chapter 29 The Revenge of Carrie Powers 277

Chapter 30 Scavdis' Last Stand 293

Chapter 31 Bamboozled 307

Chapter 32 The Wait 328

Chapter 33 Verdict 337

Epilogue Reactions 350

Afterword The Criminalization of America 357

Acknowledgments 364