TEXAS
A federal judge last week sentenced a Houston, Texas to four years and ten months in prison for his role in a money laundering conspiracy, according to officials.
According to the evidence, Marcus T. Weathersby conspired with others in the fraudulent sale of second-hand prescription medications to a Utah-based wholesale distributor, officials said.
This scheme involved purchasing bottles of prescription medications from illegitimate sources and then selling the drugs to another wholesale distributor who then sold them to pharmacies as new.
Federal regulation requires wholesale distributors of prescription medications to provide to a buyer a pedigree – a written statement identifying each prior sale, purchase, or trade of the drugs being sold that includes the business name and information of all parties to the previous transactions, starting with the manufacturer.
Around December 2010, Weathersby established Acacia Pharma Distributors Inc., a Mississippi corporation. Nearly eight months later, Weathersby directed another individual to incorporate Four Corner Suppliers Inc. in Mississippi.
Acacia and Four Corner purported to be legitimate wholesale distributors of pharmaceuticals licensed and operating in Mississippi, however, in reality, Weathersby and others used these corporations to facilitate the illegal sale of second-hand prescription drugs, according to officials.
Weathersby also opened and caused others to open bank accounts in the names of Acacia and Four Corner.
Between February 2011 and July 2012, Weathersby withdrew and led others to withdraw over $2.9 million in cash from these bank accounts and to structure these cash withdrawals in amounts under $10,000 to prevent the banks from complying with their legal obligation to prepare currency transaction reports for each cash transaction over $10,000.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Lee H. Rosenthal also ordered Weathersby to pay $2.9 million as restitution.