A US online pharmaceutical distribution network, which is said to have generated millions from the illegal sale of prescription medicines, located its computer servers on the island in an alleged attempt to evade US law enforcement, a trial in California has heard.
The Affpower enterprise is also alleged to have used various Cyprus bank accounts and an accounting firm in Nicosia, to distribute proceeds to participants while attempting to conceal and protect its illegal proceeds from the US authorities.
A federal grand jury in San Diego on July 27 indicted 18 individuals on racketeering and related charges for allegedly operating the internet business, throughout the US and abroad, that generated more than 126 million dollars in gross revenues, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and US Attorney Karen P. Hewitt for the Southern District of California announced.
Defendants included three doctors, two pharmacists and one pharmacy operator, an administrator and manager, two recruiters of physicians and pharmacies, a credit card processor and eight affiliate website operators.
From August 2004 through June 2006, the Affpower enterprise allegedly received over one million internet orders for controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs from customers in all 50 US states.
Affpower is said to have located its administrative headquarters in Costa Rica, with the enterprise also relying on foreign-based agencies, including RX Payments Ltd of Tel-Aviv, Israel, to process credit card transactions,
“The fraudulent and illegal sale of prescription drugs over the internet poses a serious threat to the health of Americans who turn to the internet in their need for pharmaceuticals,” Fisher is quoted as saying. “The defendants allegedly exploited that need and provided little or no doctor review while prescribing possibly dangerous drugs.”
Hewitt said that, “the use of the internet for the illegal distribution of prescription drugs is a greed-driven, new threat to public health, of which every citizen should be aware.”
According to the indictment, Affpower sold controlled and non-controlled prescription drugs through numerous affiliated websites to customers who lacked prescriptions for the drugs from a personal doctor. Affpower allegedly paid licensed doctors from different states and from Puerto Rico to haphazardly review health questionnaire answers provided by customers over the internet and issue prescriptions solely on the basis of those answers. The indictment alleges that Affpower doctors conducted no physical or mental examinations before issuing prescriptions, had no contact with customers, and had no physician-patient relationship with any customer for whom the doctors prescribed drugs.
Affpower doctors usually reviewed hundreds of customer orders per day and were typically paid three dollars per review. In some cases, Affpower doctors allegedly issued prescriptions for pharmaceuticals even when a customer’s answers to the health questionnaire suggested that the ordered drug could pose a danger to the customer, or that the customer did not have a medical condition for which the ordered medication was an appropriate treatment. In some instances, orders for prescription pharmaceuticals were never reviewed by a doctor at all, but were instead approved by a non-physician member of the Affpower enterprise who had allegedly stolen the identity of a licensed physician, and issued prescriptions using that physician’s name and registration.
If convicted, the defendants face between three and 20 years in prison, along with millions of dollars in fines.
Police headquarters in Nicosia yesterday told the Mail that they were not aware of the case.
A spokesman said: “Our counterparts in the United States have not been in touch, therefore we are not at the moment investigating anybody. However, should we receive instructions to look into any particular person or company, we will obviously do so.”
The American Embassy in Nicosia was yesterday unavailable for comment.
