Knoxville, Tennessee – In a shocking turn of events, Jose Torres, 58, a Delaware man, appeared before the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee and entered a guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs on August 17, 2022.
Torres faces a term of up to five years in Federal prison, $250,000 in fines, and three years of supervised release. The sentencing is set for March 29, 2023, at 3:00 pm, before the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, United States District Judge.
As part of the written plea agreement, Torres waived indictment by a Federal Grand Jury and agreed to plead guilty to the aforementioned charge. Torres conspired and agreed with others to unlawfully purchase short-supply drugs and resell those drugs to wholesale distributors.
Torres used the business arrangements with retail pharmacies to purchase prescription drugs from authorized distributors. He then resold those drugs to wholesale distributors at a significant markup. Torres knowingly misled the authorized distributors by using the pharmacies’ accounts and credentials to purchase drugs from authorized distributors.
For example, on or about March 23, 2020, Torres purchased hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets from a pharmacy located in the Eastern District of Tennessee, an unlicensed wholesale distributor, for $178 per unit, which was subsequently resold to a Veterans Affairs Medical Center in New York for $442 per unit by one of Torres’s wholesale distribution customers.
As part of the written plea agreement, Torres agreed to a personal money judgment in favor of the United States in the amount of $119,350, which represents the amount of proceeds Torres personally obtained from the offense described in the plea agreement.
“This plea agreement represents the commitment of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecuting those who exploited the fears of others to unlawfully profit during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
Assistant United States Attorney William A. Roach, Jr., who serves as the Office’s Coronavirus Fraud Coordinator, prosecuted the case. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the United States Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Inspector General.
Key Facts
- State: Tennessee
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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