Former UCSD Researcher Named in Suit

The U.S. Department of Justice will join in a lawsuit filed against Dr. John L. Ninnemann, a former UC San Diego researcher charged with falsifying research data at UCSD and the University of Utah. Ninnemann, who is now teaching in Colorado, was sued by two whistle-blowers under the federal False Claims Act.

Spokesman Frank Kelly said Justice Department attorneys will join with the U.S. attorney’s office in Northern California in suing Ninnemann within 30 days. Kelly said the Justice Department’s action will be in conjunction with the original lawsuit filed on behalf of the U.S. government by J. Thomas Condie. Condie was Ninnemann’s research assistant at the University of Utah.

According to a Justice Department statement, Ninnemann falsified the results of research he did at both universities on burn injuries. Ninnemann and the universities received $1.2 million in federal grants, said the statement.

Ninnemann and UCSD are also being sued in U.S. District Court in San Diego by Daryl Lirman, former head of the UCSD tissue bank. Lirman’s lawsuit alleged that Ninnemann and other UCSD researchers used fraud to obtain research grants and used them for their own financial gain.

UCSD Vice Chancellor Gerard N. Burrow issued a statement Friday denying that Ninnemann or the university did anything wrong.

“In 1988, a UCSD faculty committee was impaneled to review Ninnemann’s research activities . . . and concluded that there was no evidence of intentional misrepresentation or fraud,” Burrow’s statement said.

Under the False Claims Act, Condie and Lirman are eligible to receive a percentage of the money recovered by government attorneys. Last month, the government recovered $5.1 million from an unscrupulous defense contractor in El Cajon, and the whistle-blower who tipped off U.S. prosecutors stands to get about $765,000 of the recovered funds.