Fla. Man Faces 121 Years for Importing & Selling Unapproved Foreign Drugs
A Florida man faces federal charges for operating an illicit pharmaceutical scheme out of his home that imported and sold more than $7 million of unapproved and misbranded oncology drugs at a substantial discount to doctors in the U.S. through a San Diego pharmacy, said Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Martin Paul Bean III, 62, of Boca Raton, Fla., was arraigned Friday on a 35-count federal indictment for conspiracy to import unapproved, misbranded oncology drugs from foreign countries, including Turkey, Pakistan and India. According to court documents, from 2005 to 2011, the drugs were shipped in bulk to GlobalRXStore in San Diego and distributed to doctors throughout the U.S.
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The indictment accuses Bean of wire fraud, mail fraud, selling unapproved and misbranded drugs, illegal importation, and money laundering, ICE said. The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of $7 million in illicit proceeds and a Jaguar XJ. If convicted of all charges, Bean faces up to 131 years in federal prison, it said.
According to the indictment, Bean and his co-conspirators operated a call-center in Winnipeg, Canada, where doctors submitted orders for oncology drugs by phone, fax and email. The orders were filled at GlobalRXStore and mailed to the doctors with an invoice from a California wholesale pharmacy to create the false impression the drugs were approved for use in the U.S., ICE said.
In a separate, but related criminal complaint, Idriss Maher, owner of Oberlin Medical Supply and Service Corporation in San Diego, which had a California-issued drug wholesale license, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges in March for his role in the scheme, said ICE. Idriss admitted receiving and storing foreign oncology drugs, and later shipping them to doctors in the U.S. who placed orders with GlobalRXStore. After receiving payments from the doctors, Idriss transferred the funds to the foreign suppliers and to the GlobalRXStore owner's bank account in Canada, keeping a portion for himself.