Online Pharmacy Defendants Plead Guilty
On Friday, Jared Robert Wheat, Stephen Douglas Smith, Tomasz Holda, Sergio Oliveira and their company, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., pled guilty in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia pled guilty to conspiring to import and distribute adulterated, mislabeled and unapproved drugs and to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, according to the website for the Office of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia.
The defendants were alleged to have set up an off-shore pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, a small four-room facility in Belize. At the facility, the defendants produced generic versions of popular drugs such as Xanax, Valium, Ambien, Vioxx, Zoloft, Viagra, and Cialis. The production is alleged to have not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") and in violation of FDA regulations as well as the patents for the drugs, and to have been in unsanitary conditions. The defendants then marketed and sold the drugs to individuals without prescriptions, primarily over the internet. The defendants are alleged to have realized millions from the scheme. The FDA Office of Criminal Investigations participated in the investigation of the case.
