Hakob Kojoyan, Black Market Prescription Drug Sales, California 2020

San Francisco, CA - Hakob Kojoyan, a 29-year-old Northridge man, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to forfeit his Palm Springs house for participating in a scheme involving the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs.

The sentence was handed down by the Honorable Richard Seeborg, United States District Judge, on July 15, 2020.

Kojoyan admitted to engaging in a scheme from February 2017 to April 2018 to distribute illegally obtained prescription drugs to unsuspecting purchasers. He and his associates used a Pennsylvania company, Mainspring Distribution LLC (Mainspring), to pose as legitimate prescription drug wholesalers. They obtained prescription drugs from unlicensed, black market sources in California and sold them through Mainspring to unknowing wholesale customers, falsely representing that the drugs were legitimately sourced from licensed suppliers.

Kojoyan and his co-defendants specialized in expensive name-brand prescription drugs used to treat HIV, such as Atripla. Kojoyan himself also supplied prescription drugs for resale, although he had no license to do so.

The government pointed out that to combat prescription drug fraud, Congress mandated prescription drug wholesalers provide their customers with detailed information about the drugs they sell, including a transaction history tracing the drugs back to their licensed manufacturer. Kojoyan and his co-conspirators knew about these federal regulations and worked diligently to evade them.

The government further asserted that bank accounts under the control of Kojoyan received approximately $2.2 million from Mainspring-associated accounts, much of which was laundered and distributed to co-conspirators. Kojoyan's earnings were invested into a house in Palm Springs, which the Court ordered forfeited to the government.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/northridge-man-sentenced-33-months-prison-sales-black-market-drugs-unsuspecting-0