Archive for June 2011
Unlicensed Pharmacy Network Tied to Russian Mob and Corrupt Police
The online pharmacy spam in your email is probably coming from an online pharmacy organization with close links to organized crime and corrupt police in Russia.
The most actively promoted online pharmacies via spam are associated with Rx-Promotion.com, according to University of California at San Diego researchers.
Now new documents have revealed that Rx-Promotion.com, an affiliate network of rogue pharmacies, is associated with ChronoPay, the largest payment processor in Russia. While ChronoPay claims to be the PayPal of Russia, it makes a large part of its profits from illegal internet-based businesses, including promoting extreme pornographic websites, selling pirated music and movies, and is known for paying off police inspectors and working with nefarious banks.
Investigative reporter Brian Krebs has reported that evidence provided to law enforcement agencies has revealed that ChronoPay’s chief executive, Pavel Vrublevsky, is also definitively the criminal mastermind of this collection of illicit businesses, including the online pharmacies.
According to Krebs, Vrublevsky purchased a license for an Intranet service called “MegaPlan” which is a project management system he used to keep a track of ChronoPay’s “black” operations, including processing payments for counterfeit prescription drugs sold through hundreds of websites affiliated with rogue online pharmacy program Rx-promotion.com.
Delving into the MegaPlan, law enforcement agents discovered how ChronoPay employees tracked payments, ordered supplies, and ran advertising partnerships for Rx-promotion.com and other nefarious services, including “rape” pornography sites and other violent pornography, as well as pirated mp3s, and fake anti-virus software known as “scareware.”
Though employees used pseudonyms in the system, they forwarded the pseudonymic email to their actual ChronoPay email accounts, which allowed authorities to identify them.
The project management software revealed that the equal partners for the rogue pharmacy promotion program, Rx-Promotion, were Vrubelvsky and Yuri Kabayenkov. But in addition, a former Russian police investigator, previously in charge of a criminal investigation of Vrublevsky, was identified as being on the payroll.
Lifesaving Medicine Discovered to be Counterfeit, No Active Ingredient
The Food and Drug Board (FDB) of Ghana announced that laboratory analyses discovered anti-malarial medication without any active ingredients. Dr. Stephen Opuni, Chief Executive of the FDB, said that counterfeit medication, artesunate tablets, labeled as if manufactured by Guilin Pharmaceutical Co in China, had been analyzed for artesunate contain none, reported the Ghana News Agency.…
[...]United Nations Focusing on Counterfeit Medicine Trade in West Africa
United Nations officials working with African government ministers and Interpol representatives pledged to fight drug trafficking and organized crime, focusing on counterfeit medicine production and trade throughout West Africa, in Dakar on June 20, 2011. The inaugural session of the High-Level Policy Committee of the West Africa Coast Initiative was filled with discussion about how…
[...]Conspirators Sell Counterfeit Medicine Over Email and Craigslist
A Maryland man has been implicated as an alleged partner to the Waldorf woman arrested for allegedly selling counterfeit medication out of her house. 34 year old Dwayne Skiles was charged with trafficking in counterfeit goods according to an unsealed complaint, reports The Washington Examiner. According to the complaint issued by the District Court of…
[...]Fake Doctor and Counterfeit Medicine Hawkers Arrested in Nigeria
In Nigeria, a 40 year old fake Cameroonian doctor has been arrested administering counterfeit medication to patients in a local hospital, and 400 people have been implicated in a N70 million conspiracy to sell counterfeit drugs. The supposed doctor, Kweken Allen Blaise, from Cameroon, collaborated with Yahaya Jidda, from Taraba State, confessed to smuggling fake…
[...]Bahrain Customs Go After Online Drugs
Bahrain’s customs officers are now strictly screening medications delivered via the mail to Bahrain residents. The Health Ministry pharmacy and drug control director Sahar Al Qahtani said that they are cracking down on potentially harmful counterfeit drugs and herbal remedies not licensed for use in Bahrain. Recipients of medication packages are now brought in for…
[...]Cloud Based Technology Stops Drug Counterfeiters and Malaria
Cloud based technologies have been implemented in two new initiatives to help improve health in Africa, a mobile phone based system to collect malaria data in Botswana, and a counterfeit medicine detection service in Ghana and Nigeria. The malaria data collection service is run by a Botswana-based nonprofit, Positive Innovation for the New Generation (PING).…
[...]Qatar Drafts Counterfeit Drug Law
Qatar is working on the first counterfeit drug law in country, announced the Qatar’s Supreme Council of Health’s Pharmacy and Drug Control Department (PDCD). PDCD director, Dr Aisha Ebrahim Al Ansari, said that the law is currently being reviewed and will be adopted and submitted to higher authorities for approval, reports The Gulf News. “The…
[...]Online Pharmacy Owner Sentenced to 7 Years in Fake Drug Distribution Conspiracy
An online pharmacy owner, operating out of Texas, was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for trafficking and attempting to traffic in counterfeit medicine, specifically fake versions of the pharmaceutical weight loss drug known as Alli that contained a dangerous substitute ingredient that caused stroke in one victim. The U.S. Department of Justice issued…
[...]Egyptian Counterfeit Drugs Up 20%
Egyptian officials say local counterfeit drug trade including life saving medications has peaked in a year with an estimation of LE 1billion. Al-Gomhuriya reports that experts are predicting a 10% growth in the counterfeit medicine market for 2010. Local pharmacists are concerned saying, “The sale of counterfeit medical drugs has risen.” Abdul Aziz Hanafi, a…
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