Posted on Wed, Dec. 03, 2003
Feds crack down on Internet pharmacy operators
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
[email protected]
Alleging that he led an ongoing criminal enterprise that raked in more than $125 million, a federal grand jury in Virginia Wednesday released an indictment against Vincent Chhabra, 32, a South Florida kingpin in the Internet pharmacy business, and nine others.
The 108-count indictment focuses on charges that Chhabra and the others used many websites — including get-it-on-.com — to illegally sell controlled substances, mostly diet pills, without requiring that customers first be physically examined by doctors.
Also indicted were Chhabra’s sister, Sabina S. Faruqui, 30; an uncle, Sunil K. Sethi, 48; a Virginia pharmacist and physicians from Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia.
”This case is about a dangerous new spin on an old problem,” said Paul J. McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, in a prepared statement. “Drug trafficking in cyberspace is just as harmful . . . as drug trafficking on street corners. The advent of the Internet does not mean doctors and pharmacists can bypass rules.”
Prosecutors alleged that no one at the companies bothered to check the accuracy of online questionnaires that customers filled out in order to get their drugs. Many Internet users think of Chhabra’s companies, as well as many others, as major originators of spam that clog their e-mail inboxes.
One of Chhabra’s attorneys, Sean Ellsworth, and a publicist, Cori Zywotow Rice, did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
If convicted, Chhabra faces a mandatory 20 years for the criminal enterprise and up to 20 years for money laundering. The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of 15 luxury cars — including five Mercedes-Benzes, four BMWs and an Aston Martin — and 72 pieces of jewelry.
Chhabra’s main company was USA Prescriptions, which ran the websites, first from a storefront in Davie and later from a Weston office building. He also was co-owner of RxNetwork, a Davie pharmacy that was raided by agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration in October.
The DEA yanked RxNetwork’s controlled substance license because it had filled prescriptions for customers based solely on their filling out online questionnaires. Three weeks later, Ellsworth announced that the pharmacy was closing because, though the websites offered several dozen other drugs, the pharmacy couldn’t make money without the controlled substances.
”That just shows that the controlled substances are the vast majority of their business,” said Joe Kilmer, DEA spokesman.
The indictment alleges that Chhabra and the others started their online drug selling in Ohio in 1998. After the state of Ohio issued a search warrant for their premises in 1999, the group set up companies in Virginia “in an attempt to hide their operation.”
The companies used pharmacies in Alabama, Florida and Louisiana to fill the prescriptions, according to the indictment.
To confuse state authorities, the websites had doctors write prescriptions for customers located in states other than those the physicians resided in.
The others indicted were Daniel L. Thompson, 48, a Ohio physician who also ran websites; William Thompson, a Missouri physician; Laurence L. Cockerille Jr., 71, an Ohio doctor; Arturo L. Portales, 44, of Kentucky; and Russell A. Johnson, 50, of Virginia.
Also named were Daniel M. Varalli, 54, a pharmacist and co-owner of Rx Direct, a Virginia pharmacy used to distribute controlled substances; and James A. Trovato Jr., 38, who operated drug-selling websites from Ohio.