{"id":11828,"date":"2015-05-07T16:50:11","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T23:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11828"},"modified":"2015-05-07T17:35:30","modified_gmt":"2015-05-08T00:35:30","slug":"minnesota-co-sold-393-million-in-prescription-drugs-from-unlicensed-sources-to-pharmacies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11828","title":{"rendered":"Minnesota Co. Sold $393 Million in Prescription Drugs from Unlicensed Sources to Pharmacies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Justice-Depart.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-8666\" src=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Justice-Depart-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Justice-Depart\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Justice-Depart-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Justice-Depart-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Justice-Depart.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>OHIO<\/strong> &#8211; 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.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/file\/indictment\/download\">Indictment<\/a>\u00a0alleges that <strong>David Jess Miller<\/strong>, 50, of Santa Ana, California; <strong>Artur Stepanyan<\/strong>, 38, and <strong>Mihran Stepanyan<\/strong>, 29, both of Encino, California, and <strong>Minnesota Independent Cooperative Inc.<\/strong> engaged in a conspiracy to sell prescription drugs from illegal, unlicensed sources to wholesalers and pharmacies throughout the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Officials claim that Miller and MIC sold about <strong>$393 million<\/strong> worth of prescription drugs to wholesalers and retail pharmacies throughout the United States, including to multiple customers in Ohio.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cOnce 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,\u201d said <strong>U.S. Attorney Carter Stewart.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u201cWe will aggressively prosecute individuals and companies that ignore the law and sell illegally diverted prescription drugs to pharmacies, and ultimately, to American consumers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>According to the indictment, these are the allegations:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>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.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Artur Stepanyan<\/strong> and <strong>Mihran Stepanyan<\/strong>, worked together to sell drugs from illegal sources to Miller and MIC.\u00a0 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\u2019s largest source of illegal drugs.<\/li>\n<li>During the course of the conspiracy, Miller and MIC paid the Stepanyans approximately $160 million for these prescription drugs.<\/li>\n<li>To hide the true, illegal sources of their prescription drugs, David Miller and MIC falsified so-called drug pedigree documents.<\/li>\n<li>Pedigrees are documents required by law that show the source of drugs.<\/li>\n<li>For most of the conspiracy, the fraudulent pedigrees falsely listed B&amp;Y Wholesale, a company located in Puerto Rico and co-owned by <strong>co-conspirator Yusef Yassin Gomez<\/strong>\u00a0as the source of the drugs.<\/li>\n<li>The pedigree documents also falsely stated that Yassin\u2019s company was an authorized distributor of the drugs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>On Feb. 19, 2014, <strong>Yassin<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n<p>In connection with his guilty plea, Yassin admitted the he agreed to allow Miller and MIC to use his company\u2019s name to hide the true drug sources.\u00a0 In exchange, Miller and MIC paid Yassin a commission on all of the drug sales, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OHIO &#8211; 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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3810,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,3],"tags":[1359],"class_list":["post-11828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home-main-slider","category-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-pharmaceutical-drugs"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Minnesota Co. sold Unlicensed Prescription Drugs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Minnesota Co. sold unlicensed prescription drugs to pharmacies throughout the U.S.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11828\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minnesota Co. sold Unlicensed Prescription Drugs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Minnesota Co. sold unlicensed prescription drugs to pharmacies throughout the U.S.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=11828\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"American Justice Notebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AmericanJusticeNotebook\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-07T23:50:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-08T00:35:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/Government-Accountability-Office-Report.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"408\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"272\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Raul\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=11828#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/?p=11828\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Raul\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cjnotebook.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f5521baddca77b521f012298775186c0\"},\"headline\":\"Minnesota Co. 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