 |
|
 |
|
 |
    |
 |
|
U.S. Seizes Assets of Operator of Online Drug Business Federal authorities have begun to seize sports cars and other assets from a 25-year-old Minnesota man whose online prescription drug business has been the focus of a yearlong inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies. A United States District Court in Minneapolis agreed to seize control Friday of some $18 million in assets related to what court documents described as a sprawling Web sales empire built, investigators contend, with millions earned in a separate spamming operation. Law enforcement officials say Christopher W. Smith and two companies he controlled, Online Payment Solutions and Xpress Pharmacy Direct, illegally sold prescription drugs like Ambien, Xanax and Vicodin via numerous Web sites. No criminal charges have been filed, but the Web sites have been shut down and Online Payment Solutions, an 85-person company that court documents described as the telemarketing arm of Xpress Pharmacy Direct, was raided by federal agents on May 10. The two companies are based in Burnsville, Minn. Fourteen other businesses and individuals, including Mr. Smith's wife and father, are named in the continuing investigation. Mr. Smith is named on several antispam Web sites as one of the world's most prolific spammers, and papers filed in the Minnesota case allege that he used proceeds from previous spamming operations to establish the Xpress Pharmacy enterprise. Mr. Smith's lawyer, William Michael Jr., said Saturday that while the government had begun seizing property from his client, including a Lamborghini, a Ferrari, a Hummer, two limousines and "a couple of Mercedes," prosecutors would have a hard time persuading a grand jury to indict him. "We don't think Mr. Smith did anything wrong," Mr. Michael said. "He was simply facilitating, through the Internet, the doctor-patient relationship, and the pharmacy's ability to fulfill doctor-prescribed medications." According to Mr. Michael, Mr. Smith's company received prescription orders from customers who filled out health questionnaires on one of its many Web sites. Those orders were then forwarded to a licensed physician with whom the company had contracted. If the physician, upon reviewing the order, approved the prescription, it was forwarded to a pharmacy, also under contract to Mr. Smith's company, for shipping. A percentage of the money consumers paid for the drugs was distributed to the doctor and the pharmacy, Mr. Michael said. But in an affidavit filed in support of a search warrant request before the May 10 raid, George Kyrilis, an F.B.I. special agent, testified that an extensive investigation by his agency, the Internal Revenue Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration, among other agencies, indicated that Mr. Smith's company "had been defrauding consumers and distributing prescription drugs, including controlled substances, without appropriate prescriptions in violation of a host of federal and state laws."
http://www.nytimes.com
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Are you looking for :
123webguru.com, A new web division of Microsec
Technologies Ltd. |
|
|
123webguru News Desk
