Interchange 2013 Highlights: US Attorney Samuel Louis Describes How a Desire For Diamonds Brought a Master Counterfeiter to Justice
U.S.Attorney Samuel Louis speaking at Interchange 2013
We were fortunate enough to have US Attorney Samuel Louis share details from the counterfeit medication cases he has prosecuted at the Interchange 2013. During the course of his presentation, he described how master drug counterfeiter Kevin Xu was finally brought to justice.
Kevin Xu was a businessman from China who offered counterfeit drug manufacturing services on a large scale, according to the Department of Justice press release on the occasion of his sentencing. Xu owned and operated Pacific Orient International Ltd. out of mainland China, and exported counterfeit medications to the United Kingdom and the United States, reported the DOJ.
Xu’s company was the supplier of counterfeit medication responsible for one of the largest drug recalls ever conducted in the United Kingdom. Over 2 million doses of counterfeit Zyprexa, Plavix, and Casodex were recalled in the case, and Xu’s co-conspirator, Peter Gillespie was sentenced to 8 years in prison for his role in their distribution, according to the MHRA.
As Kevin Xu’s operations were all in Mainland China, prosecuting Xu himself presented serious challenges for US and UK investigators. However, as Samuel Louis described for us at Interchange 2013, prosecutors and investigators got a lucky break in July 2007, when Kevin Xu made a trip to Houston to buy diamonds for his wife at the invitation of undercover investigators. As Louis said, “When he told us he was coming to Houston because he wanted to find his wife a diamond, we were ecstatic.”
To hear the whole story, please watch the video of U. S. Attorney Samuel Louis at the 2013 Interchange.