LOS ANGELES - A MAN who sold human cadavers and body parts to private companies after they had been donated to the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) was jailed for 10 years, officials said on Thursday.

Ernest Nelson, 51, was convicted last month of eight felony offenses including conspiracy and grand theft for his role in the gruesome body parts-for-profit scam, which also involved a top official at UCLA.

During his trial, prosecutors said Nelson had carried out his crimes with the help of Henry Reid, who headed UCLA's Willed Body Program at the time.

Reid, 59, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit grand theft and was sentenced to four years and four months in state prison earlier this year.

The scheme netted both men hundreds of thousands of dollars over a four-year period, with Nelson believed to have pocketed US$1.5 million (S$2.2 million) between 1999 and 2003.

Reid and Nelson were arrested in 2004 but charges were not filed at that time although UCLA's Willed Body Program was suspended.

It was later relaunched with stricter guidelines governing the use and disposal of donated corpses. -- AFP