Ten Million Kroner, and Head of Denmark Autism Studies, Missing

THIS JUST IN....

Correction... turns out that this is not Madsen, it is Thorsen. So swap the names out in your head. Denmark research still remains crappy so no changes needed there.

AoA will be posting on it shortly.

Initial post:

Almost two million dollars is missing from Aarhus University, along with the lead researcher of the Denmark Autism studies on which the CDC has based their "no evidence of harm" opinion.

His name has not been used in the articles, but the head of the program that they seem to be referring to is Kreesten M. Madsen, MD.

Madsen was the lead author on the much disparaged "Denmark Studies", that our own pediatrician referenced when my husband asked, "are these vaccines safe?" to reassure that vaccines didn't cause autism. (Although he never mentioned autism, just asked if they were safe.)

Thimerosal and the occurrence of autism. Negative ecological evidence from Danish registry-data
Madsen KM, Lauritsen MB, Pedersen CB, Thorsen P, Plesner AM, Andersen PH, Mortensen PB.
Ugeskr Laeger. 2004 Sep 13;166(38):3291-3. Danish.

MMR vaccination and autism : what is the evidence for a causal association?
Madsen KM, Vestergaard M.
Drug Saf. 2004;27(12):831-40.

Thimerosal and the occurrence of autism: negative ecological evidence from Danish population-based data.
Madsen KM, Lauritsen MB, Pedersen CB, Thorsen P, Plesner AM, Andersen PH, Mortensen PB.
Pediatrics. 2003 Sep;112(3 Pt 1):604-6.PMID: 12949291

MMR vaccination and autism--a population-based follow-up study
Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, Schendel D, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, Olsen J, Melbye M.Ugeskr Laeger. 2002 Dec 2;164(49):5741-4. Danish. PMID: 12523209 [

A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism.
Madsen KM, Hviid A, Vestergaard M, Schendel D, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, Olsen J, Melbye M. N Engl J Med. 2002 Nov 7;347(19):1477-82.PMID: 12421889

Try as Madsen might... he just couldn't find a link between autism and vaccines. But then again, there's no money in finding a link between autism and vaccines... not when CDC is paying for your research. And it looks like Madsen may be just fine with placing money above ethics... and even the law.

And Madsen (if indeed, it is Madsen) apparently lied about his employment at a conference in Italy last year, claiming that he was still at Aarhus when he was not.

I have commented in the past on what a piece of junk the Madsen thimerosal study was, you remember, the one that docs use to say that autism rates shot up as mercury was removed from vaccines, so it actually might protect kids from autism?!? It is useless, as the second to last paragraph of the study tells the reader that the database used changed its inclusion criteria at the time thimerosal was removed and autism rates went up, then ignores that in the very next paragraph, the conclusion, that states that removing thimerosal was followed by an "increase in autism" (not an increase in the autism database, which had been changed from only tracking inpatient cases, to all cases in the country). This of course invalidates the whole study. And despite that fact, and that it was done with researchers that actually work for the country's only vaccine maker, Pediatrics published it, CDC extolled it, and my pediatrician used it guide Chandler's vaccinations.

The articles are from mid February, and I have not found any updated stories on this. Danish papers report that he is in the US, and and employed at (CDC stronghold) Emory University in Atlanta (apparently he has been for some time, while still at Aarhus, unbeknown to Aarhus, which is a no no), but his Linked In profile says that he is employed at Nycomed Pharmaceuticals in Zurich, Switzerland.

So will Aarhus confirm that this is Madsen? And where is Madsen? And where is the money? And why isn't the GMC up in arms about this dishonest researcher? And what does CDC think about all this? And what moron actually believes that giving children a neurotoxin at 25,000 times the concentration allowed in drinking water will protect the child from brain injury?

If anyone has any updates, or friends in Denmark that can help answer these questions... help us out with this one.

Update from a reader:

The CDC recruiting Madsen in 2001, email:

Dr. Simpson (CDC): "Did they [autism rates] increase after 1993??"

Dr. Madsen: "Yes but not very dramatically and there could be more reasons for that. First of all we had a change from ICD8 to ICD10 in 1994 and furthermore our outpatient clinics were registered in our surveillance from 1995."

On the irrelevance of Madsen's conclusions, if indeed they were valid in the first place:

"Because the pediatric vaccination practices of Denmark differed greatly from those of the U.S. during the study period, Madsen's conclusions, even if relevant to Denmark, were certainly not applicable to the U.S."

- Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons Volume 9 Number 3 Fall 2004

Two reports from the Danish media:

SWINDLE FOR MILLIONS AT AARHUS UNIVERSITY
Aarhus Stiftstidende
By Maja Nielsen and Morten Ravn, translated by Ulla Danielson
Wednesday February 10, 2010

A big research project has resulted in a deficit of 10 million crowns in the budget of Aarhus university.

Police are investigating the case as fraud while the university has cut its links to the chief-investigator from Aarhus, writes Danish Daily Aarhus Stiftstidende.

The Aarhus-based scientist left his job at the medical health faculty in March last year. After a short period, the university began to suspect something was radically wrong. The suspicion increased.

Accordingly the university in collaboration with Board of Science and Innovation reported the case to the police of Eastern Jylland.

Among other things the now disputed research project maps out the cause of autism. Since 2002, the project has received more than 80 millions crowns from the American board of health,the CDC.

The University of Aarhus is in the process of issuing a declaration to a lot of institutions about the tangled case.

In this communication the director of the university, Joergen Joergensen, underlines that the aarhus-scientist no longer is connected with the university.


Researcher employed in more than one place


“At the same time it has become clear that the resigned leader of the research project has been employed doubly.

Without the university’s knowledge, he has been a payed employee at the University of Emory in the USA while he was still employed in aarhus.

"Of course that is not acceptable,” says head of press for the rector at the university, Anders Corell, to Aarhus Stiftstidende.

He does not want to say anything about the amount of money the University is missing. Neither will Anders Corell comment on the information provided to the newspaper talking about a fraud involving 10 million crowns.

Police inspector Boerge Frandsen from Eastern Jylland’s police confirms, that there is a report. The police has started to investigate the case.

”Yes, it is about fraud”, the police inspector says to Aarhus Stiftstidende.

He is not able to confirm or deny size of the amount of money or the consequences.

But so far the disputed chief investigator has not been charged.


On the move in the USA


The newspaper has learned that the investigations are hampered because it has been very difficult to find the key figure in the case.

Aarhus Stiftstidende has also unsuccessfully tried to get a comment from the aarhus-based scientist, who has his private address in hoejbjerg (outside Aarhus).

After he left the medical health faculty in Aarhus he participated, among other things, at a conference in Italy.

On that event his papers erroneously said that he was employed by the University of Aarhus.

Aarhus Stiftstidende has spoken to several sources, who say that the scientist, who has a PhD, is at the moment is on the move in USA. They describe him as a Stein Bagger type (a Danish financial fraud) who is eminently clever at raising money from funds.

“He can open the doors to the great money tanks. But all projects all the time had to grow bigger and bigger. He succeeded in raising a huge amount of dollars. Rules however was something that existed for the sake of others – not for him,” it has been said, sounding characteristic.


mani@stiften.dk, mora@stiften.dk

Researcher accused of cheating Uni out of millions
The Copenhagen Post
February 11, 2010

A former lead research suspected of fraud now living in US and has not been questioned by police.

Aarhus University has confirmed that a former head of research at its North Atlantic Neuro-Epidemiology Alliances department has committed possible fraud amounting to 10 million kroner against several of the school’s research partners, reports Århus Stiftstidende newspaper.

Until last March, the man was head of an 80 million crown joint research project between the US government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University of Southern Denmark and Aarhus University.

Jørgen Jørgensen, Aarhus University’s rector, confirmed police charges have been filed against the former researcher and that it concerns a sum of around 10 million crowns.

Numerous applications for funding for the research were apparently signed with forged signatures.

The scientist – who is reportedly living and working in Atlanta in the US – resigned from his post last March. But he allegedly continued to pass himself off as the head of the international project, which dealt primarily with research into the possible causes of autism.

Aarhus University also claims that the researcher took another permanent position at Emory University in the US while still heading the Danish-based project.

Danish police said they were still investigating the case but had not yet sought cooperation from US authorities in the matter. They also have yet to question the man in connection with the case.

‘When we’ve gone through everything then we’ll decide whether there are sufficient grounds to charge the researcher or any others for forgery or fraud,’ said Børge Frandsen of East Jutland Police.