FBI arrests major pill repackager: hundred million dollar fraud

[nitpicker]

https://www.fbi.gov/newyork/press-releases/2015/owner-of-utah-based-pharmaceutical-wholesale-distributor-charged-in-hundred-million-dollar-fraud-scheme

Owner of Utah-Based Pharmaceutical Wholesale Distributor Charged in Hundred-Million-Dollar Fraud Scheme

((The FBI and others)) announced today the unsealing of an indictment charging RANDY CROWELL, a/k/a “Roger,” with fraudulently distributing, through his Utah-based wholesale distribution company, more than $100 million worth of prescription drugs obtained through a nationwide black market—drugs that were then dispensed by pharmacies to unsuspecting customers. This scheme was not only profitable for CROWELL, but also dangerous to the thousands of patients who ultimately took these black market medications not knowing that they had been previously prescribed to others and then resold and trafficked, often in unsafe conditions.
(snip)

From early 2010 until at least July 2012, CROWELL, who was the owner and operator of a licensed wholesale distributor of prescription medications based in St. George, Utah (“Wholesaler-1”), participated in a sophisticated scheme to defraud health insurance companies and Government programs such as Medicaid out of hundreds of millions of dollars by trafficking prescriptions through a nationwide black market. CROWELL, through Wholesaler-1, purchased, for more than $100 million, prescription medications from this black market at a fraction of the legitimate prices for these drugs, before selling the same as new, legitimate bottles of medication to pharmacies all over the country.

To maximize their profits, CROWELL and his co-conspirators focused on some of the most expensive medications on the market, including those used to treat HIV/AIDS. The scheme was not only profitable but potentially dangerous to the tens of thousands of patients ultimately receiving and taking these prescription drugs. As detailed below, many of the bottles purchased through the underground market and then distributed as safe, legitimate medications by CROWELL and Wholesaler-1 had in fact been previously dispensed to others, including individuals based in the Southern District of New York. To conceal the fact that they had been previously dispensed, the bottles were typically “cleaned” with hazardous chemicals such as lighter fluid before being transported and stored in conditions that were frequently unsanitary and insufficient to ensure the safety and efficacy of the medication.

In total, between 2010 and July 2012, CROWELL and Wholesaler-1 paid more than $100 million to buy medications from illegitimate sources of supply, with CROWELL personally earning, during that time period, nearly $16 million from his operation of Wholesaler-1.
(snip)

[LakeVermilion]

1. This is the answer to the question:

Why are there so many regulations? Get rid of regulations and let free enterprise work...


(sarcasm)

[Victor_c3]

5. Just what I was going to say

Let unbridled capitalism and the free self regulate itself. Nothing could possibly go wrong.

[Sherman A1]

2. Charming

simply charming......

I hope that Mr. Crowell is invited to spend a very long time at a lovely Federal Facility and that his profits are used to reimburse those affected by his inventive scheme.

[Doctor_J]

3. Maybe that's why I never got that 4 hrs

of...rigidity that I was promised by the Cialis ad.

[bemildred]

4. Monopoly pricing does often lead to black markets.

So I expect this sort of thing will happen again.

[Oilwellian]

6. I wonder if anyone died because of this? nt

[Initech]

7. Greed, profit, greed, profit, greed, profit, buy juries, no convictions.