Andrew Strempler, a Bahamas-based pharmacist from Canada, has plead guilty to charges of accepting $4,000 a month in exchange for the use of his company’s name and licence to export illegal prescription drugs from Freeport into the United States.
Last week, court papers filed in the south Florida district court disclosed that the Freeport-based Personal Touch Pharmacy was used for an 18-month scheme to ship prescription drugs into the US that were not approved by the Federal Drug Administration (FDA). The documents were cited as an ‘agreed statement of fact’ between the US federal authorities and Strempler but did not identify the Bahamas-based pharmacist who allowed his business to be used.
According to The Tribune, the documents agreed between Strempler and the US said: “From in or around January 2005, to on or about June 9, 2006, Strempler and others utilised a facility in Freeport, in the Bahamas, to dispense prescription drugs purchased from RxNorth.
The agreed statement said documents obtained from Personal Touch Pharmecy showed that illegal prescription drugs were being obtained from nations such as Australia and Turkey, without the approval of the FDA.
Strempler is now facing a potential five-year prison sentence, forfeiting $300,000 and a further fine and restitution.
