Philip Joe Guyett, the former trader of human tissue who was ordered to shut down, says it was easy to get into the industry, and people who know the body-parts business agree.

Guyett, of Raleigh, is at the center of a federal investigation after an Ohio company began recalling hundreds of tissues he supplied. That spurred the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to order Guyett to close his business this month.

"There's a big problem out there, and it's not Phil Guyett," said Harriet Bartnick of Raleigh, a board member of the Funeral Consumers Association, a national advocacy group that has pushed for reform of the tissue trade since 2003.

"This is an industry anybody can get into, and there are bodies out there that are not being watched. We would expect our federal government to do more."

The only requirement to harvest tissues destined for transplant is to fill out and submit an FDA registration form, which takes about five minutes online. A registration letter comes in the mail in about eight weeks, and there are no federal inspections for two years.

"The industry doesn't have clear regulations, that's certain," said Michael Rulison, president of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of the Triangle, part of the national group.

In a two-page letter to The News & Observer, Guyett, 38, denies any wrongdoing and says that he is being unfairly targeted by a federal agency that lacks clear rules on tissue trade and has little record of enforcing them.

The FDA says Guyett violated several rules and posed a risk of spreading diseases, such as AIDS, through tissues destined for transplant. Guyett misstated the age, cause of death and other risk factors of at least five donors he harvested for transplantation, medical research and commercial use, the agency says.

It is unclear whether Guyett or the Ohio tissue bank he supplied was primarily responsible for screening and documenting the donor tissues shipped for transplant.

Administration spokesman Paul Richards was unable to answer that question during a phone interview last week. The FDA does appear to have broadened its investigation from Guyett to also include the Ohio tissue distributor, now part of AlloSource of Centennial, Colo.

Rules are few

Guyett's career shows that it was not difficult for him to enter the business.

He said he got into the tissue trade in the mid-1990s after a back injury ended his 10-year career as a land surveyor for residential and civil engineering construction projects.

Guyett said he was interested in the science of anatomy and physiology and that there were few regulations to block his entry into the tissue business.

Tissue banks collect, process and distribute bone, ligaments, skin and tendons. FDA rules require banks to register and list which functions they perform.

Guyett's business, Donor Referral Services, was registered only to recover tissues from cadavers. Guyett said his company, which closed several months before the FDA order, did not do tissue screening, storage, processing or distributing.

Prices for fresh frozen tissue parts vary. But according to industry expert Annie Cheney, an elbow goes for $350 to $850, a hand for $350 to $850 and a whole cadaver for $4,000 to $5,000.

Cheney, who led a years-long investigation of the trade, is the author of "Body Brokers: Inside America's Underground Trade in Human Remains."

After his back injury, Guyett started courses in anatomy, biology and physiology at Victor Valley Community College in Victorville, Calif., with the idea of entering the medical field, he said. Along the way he met an instructor in the tissue trade, as well as several doctors and lawyers connected to the industry.

In 1993, he completed a short training program and landed his first job as a backup deputy coroner for the Riverside County Coroner's Office, he said. He soon started recovering tissue part time at various funeral homes for companies doing research and medical training.

From 1997 to 1999, Guyett worked as an assistant anatomy instructor for Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif. A 1997 pay stub supplied by Guyett confirms his employment there.

About 2000, he handled office work part time for land surveyors while continuing to procure tissue on the side. From 2001 to 2003, documents show he performed tissue recoveries for various banks, including the Cooperative Human Tissue Network, a bank supported by the federal government's National Cancer Institute.

Relocating to Raleigh

He moved with his wife and two young children to Las Vegas in 2002 to tap prior business contacts. He incorporated as Donor Referral Services.

He and his wife became disenchanted with Las Vegas and relocated to Raleigh. Records show the Guyetts sold the family home they bought in a Las Vegas suburb for $450,000 in 2004, when they moved to Raleigh.

"This area was consistently in the newspapers as great places to live, and it's growing fast enough that it has the amenities," Guyett said.

The Associated Press reported that Guyett made several claims on his resume and in his business dealings that were exaggerated or not true. Guyett listed Forbis & Dick Funeral Service in Greensboro as one of his business affiliates. But Mike McGhee, general manager for the funeral service, told AP: "I have been here for 27 years, and I can assure you our firm has never had any dealings with this gentleman."

Guyett supplied hundreds of tissue specimens over two years to the Cooperative Human Tissue Network, the bank supported by the National Cancer Institute for research, invoices show. One cadaver can yield more than 100 specimens.

Guyett continued to recover tissue and organs, including whole brains, until January of this year for organizations including Duke Center for Human Genetics and the Multiple Sclerosis Brain Bank, records show.

He also harvested bone and tendon for Cincinnati-based U.S. Tissue and Cell, as well as several other tissue banks.

"When you talk to people about what you do, they're generally very interested," Guyett said. "People want to know how this business works."

Guyett pleaded no contest to embezzlement charges in California in 2000 for taking payment for a corpse that did not belong to him. He said the conviction was expunged and removed from his record. A criminal background check showed no record of the conviction.

According to federal tax records supplied by Guyett, his Donor Referral Services earned $24,600 in 2004 and $38,020 in 2005.

Not much money for an emotionally taxing job, he said. "You might look at 25 bodies in one day and see people who were murdered. It's very sad to see what human beings can do to each other," Guyett said.

He performed his last tissue harvest in January and closed his business a month later, saying he has no intention of continuing in the industry.

"I was familiar with the fact that changes in FDA regulations will probably require a lot more [regulatory compliance] than a one-guy operation can handle," he said.

Receipts show Guyett sold various items on eBay in the past year, including a tissue saw for $475.

(Staff researcher Brooke Cain contributed to this report.)