Earlier this month, the Select Investigative Panel issued subpoenas to two financial entities — Scinto Group, LLP and Five Star Bancorp — in an effort to obtain StemExpress accounting and banking records, which the fetal tissue procurement business has failed to produce pursuant to previous subpoenas.
At a hearing held on April 20, 2016, on The Pricing of Fetal Tissue, the consensus among witnesses was that a full review of accounting documents by the Select Investigative Panel was warranted in order to determine whether or not StemExpress profited from the sale of human fetal tissue.
“In light of the advice we received from witnesses at our hearing last month, these subpoenas are necessary in order for the Select Investigative Panel to complete a full review of StemExpress’ accounting records,” Chairman Blackburn said. “Documents uncovered by our investigation so far point to the very troubling possibility that StemExpress may have violated federal law by profiting from the sale of baby body parts. We have learned that not only is this investigation warranted, but further examination of accounting records is needed to get the complete facts about what was actually going on.”
Click here to read the subpoena that was sent to Scinto Group, LLP, and here to read the subpoena sent to Five Star Bancorp.
Meanwhile, Chairman Marsha Blackburn has sent a letter to Cate Dyer, CEO of StemExpress, requesting full cooperation with the Select Investigative Panel’s efforts to obtain all business and accounting documents from the fetal tissue procurement organization.
“Over the last several months, we have made numerous attempts to acquire business and accounting documents from StemExpress that are necessary to complete our work at the Select Investigative Panel,” Blackburn wrote in the letter. “All of these requests have been met with verbal and written objections from your attorneys. In light of recent public comments you have made and the consensus reached by witnesses at our April 20 hearing on The Pricing of Fetal Tissue that a complete review of StemExpress business and accounting documents was necessary, I am writing to personally request you turn this information over to our investigators.”
Click here to read Chairman Blackburn’s letter, including attachments, sent to Ms. Dyer.
During a hearing held in April by the Select Investigative Panel on Infant Lives to examine The Pricing of Fetal Tissue, Fay Clayton, a lead Democrat witness, told the panel that StemExpress should be asked to turn over their banking records and documents to determine if they have or haven’t profited from the sale of baby body parts.
When asked by Chairman Marsha Blackburn about what documents she would request or subpoena from these procurement businesses, Clayton said she’d “have them [StemExpress] come in, put them under oath…and ask them how did you come up with this charge?”
“Now that their own witness has testified about the need for StemExpress to provide us with information we have subpoenaed, hopefully Democrats will finally come to the table and work with us in a bipartisan fashion to encourage attorneys for StemExpress to comply with our requests,” Chairman Blackburn said. “Accounting documents don’t lie, and so far the evidence we’ve compiled shows that further investigation is warranted. Our task is to get all the facts, and it is my hope that all members of this investigative panel will work together in that effort.”
Documents uncovered so far by the work of the Select Investigative Panel shows it is more likely than not that abortion clinics and middleman procurement businesses may have violated federal law by profiting from the payments they collected from the sale of baby body parts. Title 42 USC § 289g-2, which prohibits the transfer of any human fetal tissue for valuable consideration, states that reasonable costs include transportation, implantation, processing, preservation, quality control, and storage — none of which it appears the abortion clinics did based on documents examined at the hearing.
Watch below:
https://energycommerce.house.gov/hearings-and-votes/hearings/pricing-fetal-tissue
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