LFO scandal

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The Laboratory for Fractionation of Plasma scandal (also known as LFO scandal or LFO affair) is a phrase used to describe events connected to the investigation which started in 1995 about an investment to build a Laboratory for Franctionation of Plasma in Mielec, Poland. The laboratory was never built. In 2001 the Public Prosecutor's Office of Tarnobrzeg started a criminal investigation in the case of extortion of money to obtain credit to build the laboratory.

Contents

Investment

The investment was supposed to create a facility for fractionation of blood plasma and production of different blood-related medical products. The investment was meant to be lucrative. It appeared also that it would materialize WHO order to become independent in production of blood related products. LFO was chosen as the company which would build such a manufacturing plant. The investment proposal received US$34 million in credit mainly from such banks as Kredyt Bank. In 1998 LFO signed a licensing agreement with Australian company CSL Limited. In 1999 the bank stopped giving credit to the investment and in 2000 CSL withdrew from the project. In 2000 LFO signed a new licensing agreement with Octapharma. In 2001 the bank finally withdrew from credit agreement and the National Public Prosecutor's Office started to investigate the project.

LFO's investors were:

Main aspects of the LFO scandal

Polish media inquired about the following issues, which indicated abuses during construction of the factory:

Criminal investigation

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