Posted on July 21, 2009 by Anthony Lake

VA Doctor Pleads Guilty to Issuing Between 50K to 100K Prescriptions Online

Online pharmaceuticals are big business and, frequently big sources of violations of the Food and Drug Act, including criminal ones. Accordingly, Mechanicsville, Virginia, doctor Torino Jennings pled guilty last week in federal court to seven counts of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce and four counts of tax evasion. Jennings was charged with issuing between 50,000 to 100,000 prescriptions between 2004 and 2007 to persons who filled out forms for online pharmacies.

Jennings was paid $5 to $7 per perscription. He failed to report the income to the Internal Revenue Service, however. Jennings will be sentenced in November and faces a maximum of five years in prison.

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Posted on August 18, 2008 by Anthony Lake

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. 

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