Cordis Corp. pleaded guilty in federal court...

Cordis Corp. pleaded guilty in federal court in Miami to concealing defects in thousands of heart pacemakers, and four former executives were indicted for allegedly trying to cover up the problems with “thousands” of units sold from 1980 to 1985. The battery-powered pacemakers are implanted beneath the skin of heart patients to regulate heartbeat by electrical impulses. The company agreed to pay $264,000 in fines and costs and stressed that the agreement only covered the company, not the officers who ran Cordis at the time. A Food and Drug Administration spokesman said the defective pacemakers have long since been the subject of notifications to physicians and are no longer on the market.