FDA-OCI Investigation Leads To Guilty Pleas From Two Men Who Sold Fake Drugs To Americans

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on September 20, 2017 that two men from India, Alok Kailashnath Jaiswal and Rahil Parvez Mir, waived their rights to be indicted and each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the U.S. Specifically, the DOJ alleged the men with illegally distributing controlled substances, introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce and knowingly and fraudulently importing merchandise contrary to U.S. law.

According to the criminal complaint, an undercover law enforcement officer made controlled purchases from Jaiswal and Mir on four separate occasions from November 4, 2015 to February 10, 2017. Counterfeit drugs purchased by the officer included Xanax, hydrocodone, eutropin, tadalafil, and sildenafil. Information provided by Mir, who the officer stated was the manager of the illegal pharmaceutical side of the company called Global Pharmacy, indicated that the drugs were manufactured in India and not the FDA-approved versions of the drugs. During a phone conversation on December 2, 2015, Mir said the company had a warehouse in Delhi and Mumbai, and that they only sold to customers in Canada and the U.S.

During a telephone conversation on June 15, 2016, Mir said there was a second side to Global Pharmacy called KNM Global Services. They call customers in the U.S. in an attempt to sell them pharmaceuticals. Mir said they called 5,000 people each day, approximately 50 people would answer their phones, only 30 would be interested making a purchase, but around 10 people would actually buy drugs from them. At a meeting in a hotel in Mumbai on March 23, 2017 with both Jaiswal and Mir, the men said they had been in business for six years, providing antibiotics to 70-80 hospitals and around 150 pharmacies in India while selling to approximately 400 U.S. customers each month.

Sentencing is scheduled for November 3, 2017. According to WSET, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations and the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Drug Diversion Office in New Delhi, India conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Ramseyer prosecuted the case.