OHIO – Three California men and a Minnesota company are named in an indictment alleging they were involved in a conspiracy to sell prescription drugs from illegal, unlicensed sources to wholesalers and pharmacies throughout the United States, according to authorities.
The Indictment alleges that David Jess Miller, 50, of Santa Ana, California; Artur Stepanyan, 38, and Mihran Stepanyan, 29, both of Encino, California, and Minnesota Independent Cooperative Inc. engaged in a conspiracy to sell prescription drugs from illegal, unlicensed sources to wholesalers and pharmacies throughout the United States.
Officials claim that Miller and MIC sold about $393 million worth of prescription drugs to wholesalers and retail pharmacies throughout the United States, including to multiple customers in Ohio.
The 12-count indictment charges the defendants with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, multiple counts of mail fraud, and conspiracy to distribute prescription drugs without a license and to make false statements.
“Once a prescription drug is diverted outside of the regulated distribution channels, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, for regulators, law enforcement and end-users to know whether the prescription drug package actually contains the correct drug or the correct dose,” said U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart. “We will aggressively prosecute individuals and companies that ignore the law and sell illegally diverted prescription drugs to pharmacies, and ultimately, to American consumers.
According to the indictment, these are the allegations:
- From 2007 through April 2014, David Miller and his company, Minnesota Independent Cooperative, of Eagan, Minnesota, purchased prescription drugs from a network of illegal and unlicensed sources in New York, Florida and California.
- Artur Stepanyan and Mihran Stepanyan, worked together to sell drugs from illegal sources to Miller and MIC. Artur and Mihran Stepanyan, using a variety of company names, including Panda Capital Group, Red Rock Capital Group, Trans Atlantic Capital Group and GC National Wholesale, were Miller’s largest source of illegal drugs.
- During the course of the conspiracy, Miller and MIC paid the Stepanyans approximately $160 million for these prescription drugs.
- To hide the true, illegal sources of their prescription drugs, David Miller and MIC falsified so-called drug pedigree documents.
- Pedigrees are documents required by law that show the source of drugs.
- For most of the conspiracy, the fraudulent pedigrees falsely listed B&Y Wholesale, a company located in Puerto Rico and co-owned by co-conspirator Yusef Yassin Gomez as the source of the drugs.
- The pedigree documents also falsely stated that Yassin’s company was an authorized distributor of the drugs.
On Feb. 19, 2014, Yassin pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio to conspiracy to engage in the wholesale distribution of prescription drugs without a wholesale license.
In connection with his guilty plea, Yassin admitted the he agreed to allow Miller and MIC to use his company’s name to hide the true drug sources. In exchange, Miller and MIC paid Yassin a commission on all of the drug sales, officials said.