Florida Man Sentenced for Selling Unapproved Drugs Through Online Pharmacy
A Florida man was sentenced Sept. 12 for operating an illicit, San Diego-based online pharmacy that sold over $7 million worth of “unapproved and misbranded oncology drugs at a substantial discount” to U.S. doctors, said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Martin Bean of Boca Raton, Fla., pleaded guilty in February to conspiring to commit numerous federal offenses, including wire fraud, mail fraud, selling unapproved and misbranded drugs, and importing merchandise contrary to law.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
According to his guilty plea, Bean operated the Global RX store from his Florida residence and sold prescription drugs that he acquired from foreign sources in Turkey, India and Pakistan. These drugs were sent in bulk shipments to Oberlin Medical Supply in San Diego, where co-conspirators repackaged the drugs and sent individual orders to specific U.S. doctors. Invoices from Oberlin Medical Supply were included in the orders to create the “false and misleading appearance” that the drugs were approved for sale in the U.S. Court records showed that Bean and his co-conspirators also operated a call center in Canada, using toll free numbers to take customer orders.
Bean was sentenced to 24 months in federal custody and forfeiture of a Jaguar he purchased with illicit proceeds. Bean was also ordered to pay over $19,000 in restitution to one of his victims. Maher Idriss, owner of Oberlin Medical Supply, was also charged in the case and is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 21.