Congressional investigators have revealed that Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff of Emory University, one of the nation’s leading psychiatrists, has failed to report income of more than $1.2 million, thus violating federal regulations.

The money, which came from consulting arrangements with drug makers, has been earned by Nemeroff over a period of seven years, from 2000 to 2007. The total amount has been estimated at about $2.8 million.

A Congressional investigation led by Senator Charles E. Grassley is currently demanding that top researchers provide their conflict-of-interest disclosures, which are to be afterwards compared with drug companies’ payment records.

The first one to be investigated by Grassley was Dr. Melissa P. DelBello of the University of Cincinnati, who reported income of about $100,000 between 2005 and 2007, while drug maker AstraZeneca’s records showed the company alone had paid DelBello $238,000 within that time-frame.

In addition to the investigation, Senator Grassley has supported the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, legislation that requires drug and device companies to make over $500 payments to doctors available to the public.

In July 2004, Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff signed a letter to Emory University administrators, stating that he would not earn more than an annual $10,000 from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the world's second largest pharmaceutical company.

Nevertheless, UK-based GSK reported payments to Nemeroff amounting to $170,000 in 2004. Although crossing the $10,000 limit required the researcher to inform Emory so that the University could have managed the conflict, Nemeroff chose to assure administrators over and over again that he had not surpassed the threshold.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have informed they would be taking the appropriate measures in order to ensure that Nemeroff’s research, which should not be influenced in any way by financial incentives, became compliant with NIH standards.