| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 20, 2008 WWW.USDOJ.GOV/USAO/CAN |
SAN JOSE – United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced that on Monday, March 17, 2008, Andrew Thomas Russo, 49, of Wilmington, North Carolina pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally distribute controlled substances, including phentermine, a Schedule IV controlled substance that can be abused for weight loss in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, before United States District Judge Ronald M. Whyte. Russo pleaded guilty and admitted that between May 2005 and December 2005, he conspired with Denis Leborgne and David John, both indicted co-conspirators, to establish and operate United Care Pharmacy (“UCP”) in Wilmington, North Carolina.
In pleading guilty, Mr. Russo admitted that UCP fulfilled orders for Internet pharmaceutical sellers as well as operated its own program that contracted with doctors to provide sham medical prescriptions for individuals seeking to illegally obtain certain types of controlled substances without proper medical supervision. UCP fulfilled these illegal pharmaceutical orders and receiving “prescriptions” that were approved by physicians sitting oftentimes thousands of miles away from the customer and relying solely on an on-line questionnaire, without ever verifying the information on the questionnaire, other than the ability to pay for the pharmaceuticals. UCP then downloaded these “prescriptions,” packaged the pharmaceuticals, and sent them to customers across the United States, including to the Northern District of California. In addition to receiving these prescriptions that were issued without the physician conducting a good-faith, face to face exam of the customer, the pharmacist at UCP did not verify the authenticity or appropriateness of the “prescriptions” before allowing the drugs to be sent out.
In addition to sending out the drugs without proper prescriptions, Russo also admitted that as part of this conspiracy, UCP and its participants also set up off-shore accounts and a shell company to receive payments for fulfilling these drug orders. Russo agreed to forfeit assets and have a money judgment entered against him for the benefit of the United States totaling more than $3 million.
The maximum statutory penalty for the conspiracy count in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Section 846 for this matter is 3 years imprisonment, a fine of $250,000 or twice the value of money obtained from the violation, 1 year supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment. United States District Judge Whyte set the sentencing for June 23, 2008 at 9 a.m. in San Jose, California. Any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Shashi Kewalramani is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Lead Legal Assistant Cynthia Daniel. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Financial Investigation Team.
Further Information:
Case #:CR 06-00748 RMW
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Electronic court filings and further procedural and docket information are available at https://ecf.cand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Joshua Eaton at (415) 436-6958 or by email at Josh.Eaton@usdoj.gov.