Medtronic allegedly operated a bribery scheme for nearly a decade

A whistleblower lawsuit alleges that Medtronic PLC (NYSE: MDT) engaged in a bribery scheme for nearly a decade. Its shares are still in the green this morning.

Medtronic used bribery to beat competition

The said lawsuit claims that Medtronic bribed staff at a small veteran hospital in Kansas to pick its devices over ones from competitors.

Its sales representatives also made illicit payments to hospital personnel to order “grossly excessive inventory” that was later used to perform unwarranted medical procedures on veterans, as per the complaint filed by Tom Schroeder.

Schroeder worked for years at Becton Dickinson. In an exclusive interview with CNBC today, he said:

Medtronic’s response to the allegations

Medtronic PLC denied the request for an on-camera interview following the stock market news on Wednesday. Its spokesperson Boua Xiong said in a statement, though:

The Dublin-headquartered firm is the world’s largest manufacturer of medical devices by revenue. Its latest annual filing attributed the largest chunk of over $31 billion worth of sales to its cardiovascular segment.

That’s important considering its cardiovascular products are at the centre of the whistleblower lawsuit. Ahead of today’s development, Wall Street had a consensus “overweight” rating on shares of this healthcare stock.