OP Indicted

[Pharmgroup]

This is actually scary cause they went after the guy processing credit cards and a marketer as well..The Gov does not like controlled subs

http://wcco.com/health/local_story_236164104.html

[medfan]

"Smith, a high school dropout, was an internationally known e-mail spammer when he started his Internet pharmacy, which includes a dozen Internet sites and a call center with about 85 employees, authorities said."

"Prosecutors say the business generated gross sales of more than $20 million between March 2004 and May 2005"

[Pharmgroup]

True,
Although going to school taught you values, morales and integrity :rolleyes:

[boog]

Whoa back up... this guy was doing FAR more than dealing in controlled substances. He was importing his product to MN from God knows where, repackaging, relabeling, and marketing with no pharmacist involved. Then he fled the country when the government made a move. That's not your typical online pharmacy.

We have yet to see an OP charged solely for online consultations. The ones going down are being totally unscrupulous about the business in one way or another.

If Jude of Jive was not charged with anything, there is still a legal model.

[Pharmgroup]

I believe that I have read all the articles and I concur with everything you have said, with a few exceptions.
Are you positive that he was not using a pharmacy? I am lead to believe that he wasn't simply because they have made no mention of a pharmacists in any articles that I have read. Secondly if he wasn't then Again I would assume that they were importing medications illegally, therfore the misbranding.
The scary thing is that the cc processing co was indicated as well

[Pharmgroup]

Heres another snipet from an article by Pioneer Press - St. Paul,MN,USA
... Smith would obtain customer lists from other online pharmacies and once hacked into the Web site of another online drugstore to steal its customer list ...

[Gumby]

He spammed and "rebranded drugs", two things that can get you arrested regardless of what your business is.

[DaveM]

http://rxaffiliateforum.com/showthread.php?t=3662&highlight=Xpress+Pharmacy+Direct

[boog]

I am lead to believe that he wasn't simply because they have made no mention of a pharmacists in any articles that I have read.

Right, that's what I was using as an indication there wasn't a legit pharmacy involved. Could be wrong. But the fact that he and his employees were *handling* pharmaceuticals does show he was acting as a pharmacist without a license.

You just can't do things like that and be taken seriously.

[Pharmgroup]

http://rxaffiliateforum.com/showthread.php?t=3662&highlight=Xpress+Pharmacy+Direct

Dave that was the first time, before he allegedly went to the DR and tried to open up after the courts told him otherwise. He has since been taken into custoday again and held till at least Friday August 25, 2005

[DaveM]

Yes that's right, a history of criminal behavior. Bye-bye see you in 25.

[Pharmgroup]

I don't wish that on anyone but this type of activity is what lends credence to the government push to shut down an industry that can actually be beneficial to society. I hope others will learn from the mistakes of their predecessors

[AlexOP]

I would just like those reading these great newspaper article to remeber innocent till proven guilty. I am not saying he is innocent, but this could be the feds just trying to get hype. I say we give him his day in court.

[Pharmgroup]

EAST BRUNSWICK — The Dunhams Corner Road office of Philip Mach, a Franklin Park doctor, was shuttered yesterday following his indictment Wednesday by a federal grand jury on charges of illegally issuing roughly 72,000 prescriptions through an online-pharmacy business based in Minnesota.

No one answered the door yesterday at the office of Mach, a pulmonary and internal-medicine specialist. The person answering the office's emergency number said Mach was "on vacation."

Messages left at Mach's Franklin Park home were not returned. The attorney listed with authorities in Minnesota, where the indictment was handed up, is no longer Mach's lawyer, a person at that lawyer's office said.

Mach, 47, is facing one count of conspiracy to distribute and dispense controlled substances, four counts of wire fraud, three counts of unlawful distribution and dispensing of a controlled substance and five counts of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce.

The state Board of Medical Examiners renewed Mach's license to practice in New Jersey in May, according to a spokesman for the state's Division of Consumer Affairs. That renewal is good for two years.

"He's able to practice without restriction," pending the board's review of the indictment

and any subsequent board action, the spokesman, Jeff Lamm, said.

"What (the board) could do is temporarily suspend (his license) until the matter is resolved, or outright revoke it," Lamm said.

In part, the indictment charges Mach and his primary co-conspirator, Christopher William Smith of Prior Lake, Minn., with conspiring to distribute controlled substances "other than for a legitimate purpose . . . by means that were outside of the usual course of professional medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose."

In July 2004, Smith and Mach began cobbling together various enterprises, usually through spam e-mails, Internet sites and telemarketing call centers, the indictment states. They continued for nearly a year, generating sales in excess of $20 million.

During that span, the indictment says, Mach approved and issued prescriptions, including Xanax, an anxiety-reducing drug; Ambien, prescribed for insomnia; Cialis, an erectile-dysfunction drug; and Lipitor, which lowers cholesterol, to customers all over the country.

Throughout, Mach was the sole acting physician in Smith's enterprises and "in virtually all instances" would have no contact with the customers or their primary-care doctors nor obtain medical records, apart from what information could be gained from an online questionnaire, the indictment states. Mach kept no records of his consultations.

Despite receiving a Drug Enforcement Agency directive around March as well as concerns from legitimate pharmacies doing business with Smith and Mach, the pair continued to cultivate their scheme.

In March, April and May, Mach and Smith dispensed hydrocodone tablets through an outfit named Xpress Pharmacy Direct to undercover agents posing as customers without any face-to-face, telephone or e-mail consultations with Mach or other physicians, according to the indictment. Hydrocodone, a narcotic related to codeine, relieves pain.

The United States Attorney's Office said that Mach is licensed to practice only in New Jersey.

New Jersey requires that a doctor perform a physical examination of every patient before a prescription is written, Lamm said.

Mach was first licensed to practice medicine in New Jersey in July 1988, according to the state Division of Consumer Affairs. The division's online profile for Mach also lists his initial license date as 1981 but does not specify which state issued that license. The U.S. Attorney's Office noted that he has an inactive license issued in Pennsylvania.

According to New Jersey's Division of Consumer Affairs, Mach attended medical school in Mexico at the Facultad de Medicina, in the state of Nuevo Leon, and received graduate medical education at Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School in New Brunswick. Two professional organizations certified him for internal medicine and pulmonary disease practice. His pulmonary-disease certification expired at the end of last year.

There have been no past board actions against Mach, according to the state's Division of Consumer Affairs.

The indictment is the result of a joint Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigation.

Mach faces statutory maximum prison terms of five years on the conspiracy count, 20 years on each wire fraud count, five years on each distribution count and three years on each commerce count. Maximum fines range from $10,000 on each commerce count to $250,000 for each of the other counts.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Minneapolis, which released the indictment, said that Mach's initial hearing date had not yet been set.

[seodoc]

This is actually scary cause they went after the guy processing credit cards and a marketer as well..The Gov does not like controlled subs

http://wcco.com/health/local_story_236164104.html

Where does it say they went after the 'marketer'?

[Pharmgroup]

in previous articles it mention the marketing..not this one

[XPRESSRXSCRIPTS]

Rizler pleads not guilty
As I expected, former spam-king (turned online drug-lord) Christopher Smith ("Rizler") has pleaded NOT guilty Friday to the slew of charges against him, which include conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, wire fraud, selling misbranded drugs and money laundering.

Smith will await trial in a halfway house and must wear an electronic monitoring device -- the same kind of ankle bracelet sported by Martha Stewart. (Prosecutors had wanted Smith jailed instead, to prevent another fugitive incident.)

The trial may not take place for months. Smith's attorney says he needs to conduct hundreds of interviews to prepare a defense. Meanwhile, the prosecution will be sifting through evidence and compiling its case.

Among the evidence listed in court records is a boatload of computer files and other data seized from Internet service providers who sold web hosting to Smith. For example, a server (IP address 216.127.66.111) confiscated from Everyones Internet, Inc. of Houston, Texas; and three servers (IP addresses 69.93.204.68, 69.93.243.74, and 69.93.142.170) confiscated from The Planet Internet Services of Dallas.

Also seized via search warrants was data from Ohio-based Jumpline.com, which hosted numerous Smith drug sites, including rxorderfill.com (IP 66.84.51.222), digihealthcorp.net (IP 66.84.51.222), supremeproductsltd.com (IP 66.84.51.222), digihealthcorp.com (IP 66.84.10.71), samedaypayday.com (IP 66.84.10.71), licensedrx.com (IP 66.84.10.71), receiverx.com (IP 66.84.10.71), and netmeds.com.

While the government is looking to tighten the screws against Smith, they won't be going after his friend and fellow spammer Harry Creaghan after all. On July 13, the warrant for Creaghan's arrest was revoked and contempt charges against him were dropped.

[HeadCracker]

Once uncle Sam has an entity in its sites, "everybody" goes down or is at least looked at with a microscope.

What ceases to amaze me is the fact of all the resources used to do this. DEA, FDA,etc..
yet they cant stop the local street crack dealer from distributing tons of god knows what cooked up to the masses.

Yes, I agree whole heatedly, punish these idiots damaging and taking advantage of this trade. The truth of the matter is though, if they made the small ( or smaller ) amounts of money that the street drug dealer did, I dont think they would be so hell bent on this industry.

Lets face it, when uncle sam and money is concerned, ( big money ) the resources are endless.

[che]

this is far from marketer.