Grimy Times Exclusive
Three New York residents have been sentenced to prison for their involvement in a massive scheme to sell illegally imported prescription medications worth tens of millions of dollars.
A federal court in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, ordered the following sentences on Friday:
• Devan Abrams, 40, of West 37th Street, New York, New York, received a 38-month term of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release.
• Azad Khizgilov, 47, of Dahlgren Place, Brooklyn, New York, received a 38-month term of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release.
• Roman Shaulov, 54, of Shore Parkway, Brooklyn, New York, received a 28-month term of imprisonment followed by two years of supervised release.
According to the court, the defendants enriched themselves by leading a sophisticated fraud scheme that facilitated the black-market importation and sale of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of prescription medications and controlled substances.
The complex scheme involved front companies, fake websites, and a tangled web of bank accounts, which misled various credit card companies into processing transactions for purchases of drugs that were illegal to be sold in the United States. These drugs were often imported from Russia, China, India, and other countries.
“Committing fraud was the full-time job of these defendants,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Stephen R. Kaufman. “They manipulated friends and even family members to serve as owners of front companies, they had a cadre of employees whom they supervised and trained to commit fraud, and they created and executed a complex scheme that allowed them, for years, to deceive sophisticated financial institutions. Now they have been held accountable for their criminal actions.”
Acting U.S. Attorney Kaufman commended the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, Homeland Security Investigations, Pennsylvania State Police, and United States Postal Inspection Service for their investigation leading to the successful prosecution of the defendants.
This case was prosecuted by Brendan T. Conway, Assistant United States Attorney, on behalf of the government.
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Key Facts
- State: Pennsylvania
- Category: Drug Trafficking|Fraud & Financial Crimes|Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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