Master Counterfeiter: Ran Global Drug Counterfeiting Business - Sentenced to 6.5 Years
Kevin Xu a citizen of the Peoples Republic of China was sentenced to seventy-eight months imprisonment for distributing counterfeit and misbranded drugs in the United States, on January 1th, 2009.
Xu was sentenced after being found guilty in a jury trial that took place in August 2008. Xu was indicted in 2007, as the result of an undercover investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the US Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigation (FDA).
Xu described to undercover agents his ability to manufacture all manner of brand name prescription drugs, and included a list of 25 different prescription drugs he could produce, including Plavix (used for treating blood clots), Casodex (for the treatment of prostate cancer), and Tamiflu (used for the treatment of influenza) along with several other life-saving drugs.
Xu had been conducting his business throughout Europe, but the investigation that resulted in his arrest only began once he attempted to break into the United States pharmaceuticals market. The US investigation into Xu’s activities uncovered the startling volume of business that he was conducting in the United Kingdom. As a result of this discovery, massive drug recalls were declared by the UK’s Medicines and Health Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and a counterfeit drug distribution ring based in the United Kingdom was apprehended.
Nimo Ahmed, Acting Head of Enforcement at the MHRA remarked at the time that “This case highlights the criminality of the people who continue to put profit before patient’s health. These illegal pharmacy websites selling medicines bought from illegitimate sources pose a real threat to people’s health because they simply don’t know what they are getting.”
In addition to his prison term, Xu was ordered to pay $1.28 million in restitution.
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