vIndianz.com(15 Dec, 2009) — An Indian-American man has been sentenced by a US court to 12 years in jail and ordered to pay 68 million dollars for his connection in an intricate Internet scam that obtained an enormous 200 million dollars by illegitimately selling addictive medicines to cyber clients and drug users.
Rakesh Jyoti Saran (47) of Arlington in Texas was sentenced on December 11 to 144 months in federal prison, said US Attorney James T Jacks of the Northern District of Texas. He was in addition asked to compensate 68 million dollars in compensation.
Saran, the last defendant to be sentenced in this case, pleaded guilty to one count of scheme to commit healthcare fraud and other federal offences, two counts of mail fraud and one count of conspiracy to dispense prohibited substances. He has been in federal custody ever since May 2009. Saran was arrested in 2005 on charges outlined in a 201-count federal indictment which suspected that he and five co-defendants conspired from 1999 to 2005 to commit healthcare fraud, wire fraud and money laundering and to illicitly distribute controlled substances in a drug diversion scheme.
According to plea papers filed in court, Saran operated 23 Texas included pharmacies through two firms he owned – Carrington Healthcare Systems and Infinity Services Group. Saran’s pharmacies purchased costly pharmaceuticals – including addictive painkillers and psychiatric medications – by deceitfully representing to the wholesalers that the drugs were for circulation to prisons, hospital and other facilities, according to the plea papers.
The pharmacies then distributed the drugs with no valid doctors’ prescriptions to Internet customers, drug users and others who paid up to four times the cost if the drugs had been obtained lawfully, authorities said.
Saran’s co-defendants beforehand pleaded guilty, receiving prison terms ranging from 33 months to eight years. As part of his plea agreement, Saran forfeited assets earned from his illegal actions, including over 1,000,000 dollars in cash seized at his residence, over 375,000 dollars found in bank accounts, 390,000 dollars in cashiers’ checks and money orders, several vehicles and a home under construction in Arlington which was sold by the US Marshals Service for 1,200,000 dollars through an Internet auction in May 2008.
Saran in addition used his pharmacies to control a “store front” website designed to assist the distribution of controlled substances to internet customers. Using the website, drug users illicitly acquired controlled substances and dangerous drugs with no valid prescriptions and without doctors’ intervention, paying up to four times the real cost.
Saran in addition used his pharmacies to fill pharmaceutical orders from other Internet Facilitation Centers (IFC) involved in the illegitimate distribution of risky drugs and controlled substances.
Further Reading- Web users worry about prying businesses, survey says – Boston Globe
- Tenth Study by the Digital Future Project Finds High Levels of Concern About … – Bradenton Herald
- Web users worry about prying businesses, survey says – Boston Globe
- Web users worry about prying businesses, survey says – Boston Globe
- Web users worry about prying businesses, survey says – Boston Globe
- Web users worry about prying businesses, survey says – Boston Globe
- Web users worry about prying businesses, survey says – Boston Globe
- Web users worry about prying businesses, survey says – Boston Globe
- Drugs’ Cost and Safety Fuel a Fight – New York Times
- HHS steps up fight against Medicare fraud – FierceHealthcare
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