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HIV drug scheme overview:
- Who: Florida man Lazaro Hernandez was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his alleged role in a $230 million scheme involving HIV medication.
- Why: Hernandez was hit with federal conspiracy charges after being accused of being involved in a scheme to mislabel and sell HIV medication to pharmacies.
- Where: The case was in Florida federal court.
A Florida man was sentenced to 15 years in prison last week after pleading guilty earlier this year to federal conspiracy charges revolving around an alleged $230 million scheme to mislabel and sell HIV drugs to pharmacies.
Lazaro Hernandez, who was alleged to have laundered the money gained in the scheme through high-value items, was sentenced in a Florida federal courthouse on June 15, after initially being charged with six counts last June.
Prosecutors accused Hernandez and his alleged co-conspirators of establishing and obtaining licenses for wholesale drug distribution for several limited liability companies in some states, including New York, New Jersey, and Florida, Law360 reports.
Hernandez reportedly ultimately pleaded guilty to two counts in April, including a conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and conspiracy to commit laundering.
“I’ve heard people tell me sorry before in and out of court,” Judge Raag Singhal said during the proceeding, according to court documents. “The difference in your case is that you have a history.”
Prosecutors: Redirected HIV medication billed to insurers for thousands of dollars per 30-day supply
Prosecutors argued that, between 2019 and 2021, Hernandez was able to acquire a large amount of redirected prescription drugs — including HIV medication — that was able to be billed to insurers for thousands of dollars per every 30-day supply.
Hernandez is alleged to have repackaged the medication under false labeling as a way to make them look as though they had been received legitimately, before proceeding to sell them at a steep discount to his co-conspirators at a number of different wholesale companies.
The allegedly mislabeled medications were ultimately distributed from the wholesalers out to various pharmacies, according to prosecutors, who argued the drugs were then dispensed to unsuspecting customers before being billed to their health insurers.
“The front end is where you have these drug aggregators basically exploiting largely indigent people, purchasing the drugs on the very cheap from these individuals who were prescribed these HIV medications,” Department of Justice prosecutor Alexander T. Pogozelski said, according to court documents.
In 2021, Gilead Sciences, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Janssen Pharmaceuticals agreed to pay $10 million to resolve claims the companies inflated their prices for generic HIV treatments while simultaneously working to keep them off the market.
Do you agree with the sentence handed down over the alleged HIV medication scheme? Let us know in the comments!
The HIV drug scheme case is U.S. v. Hernandez, Case No. 22-cr-60129, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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2 thoughts onMan gets 15-year sentence for $230M HIV drug scheme
This is happening with mounjaro, Ozempic, etc because Robert Weinman and his group hav HIV/AIDS, the target people, intercept product deliveries, including computers, cars, phones, medications. He’s with Scientology. They then preHACk phones and computers, poison medications, tell people to bar scan packages, look at cars for stickers because they keep all new deliveries and refurb cars for new sale, leased vehicles no one would know, on VINs are fake and you can’t register., they steal all stocks from companies and doing hostile take overs. Look at MN wild now someone comes up with 51%. Beware because I don’t want them ruling the world.
This is happening with mounjaro, Ozempic, etc because Robert Weinman and his group hav HIV/AIDS, the target people, intercept product deliveries, including computers, cars, phones, medications. He’s with Scientology. They then preHACk phones and computers, poison medications, tell people to bar scan packages, look at cars for stickers because they keep all new deliveries and refurb cars for new sale, leased vehicles no one would know, on VINs are fake and you can’t register., they steal all stocks from companies and doing hostile take overs. Look at MN wild 🤪 of now someone comes up with 51%. Beware because I don’t want them ruling the world.