Body parts case has potential to reach far

NEW YORK (AP) — The alleged mastermind behind a scheme to plunder bodies and sell their parts for millions plans to plead guilty next week. In an effort to escape lengthy jail sentences stemming from cases in Philadelphia and New York, Michael Mastromarino, the former owner of the infamous Biomedical Tissue Services, has agreed to talk to investigators about the companies that bought the stolen tissue.

The scandal broke two years ago when Mastromarino was accused of furtively hacking up corpses from funeral homes in the Northeast. The body parts were sent to the processors, fetching as much as $7,000 in some instances. The companies that processed the tissue already face hundreds of civil lawsuits.

The bodies came from funeral homes in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

BTS shipped the bone, skin and tendons to Regeneration Technologies Inc., LifeCell Corp., Tutogen Medical Inc., all publicly traded companies, along with two nonprofits, Lost Mountain Tissue Bank and the Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas.