Four Indicted On Charges Of Violating Federal Drug, Fraud And Money Laundering Laws

PITTSBURGH - Three residents of India and one resident of Morocco have been charged in a second superseding indictment by a federal grand jury in Pittsburgh on charges of violating federal prescription drug, narcotic, fraud and money laundering laws, United States Attorney David J. Hickton announced today.

The 24-count second superseding indictment named Javed Sunesra, 37, Zuned Sunesra, 35, and Bismilla Sunesra, 60, all of Mumbai, India, and Samir Taslimant, 37, of Casablanca, Morocco.

According to the second superseding indictment, from November 2005 to April 2014, defendants Javed Sunesra, Zuned Sunesra, Bismilla Sunesra and Samir Taslimant, operated pharmacy websites based out of India called emedoutlet.com, shopeastwest.com, and superdrugsaver.com, amongst others. From these websites, the Sunesras, aided and abetted by others, including Taslimant, who ran an affiliate website called iwantmeds.com, conspired to distribute unapproved and misbranded prescription drugs into the United States without a prescription. These prescription drugs included “standard” prescription drugs such as Viagra and Accutane, as well as Schedule IV and V controlled substances such as Soma and Darvocet.

In addition, the Sunesras, acting together with co-defendant Taimur Khan, who has already pled guilty and is due to be sentenced, deceived customers of emedoutlet.com by claiming that the drugs sold were FDA approved and were similar to drugs sold in the United States when in fact that was not true. Further, Khan and the Sunesras set up a fake “gift card” company called “mygiftcard.biz” to process credit cards for customers. The purpose of this fake company was to convince credit card processors that emedoutlet.com and its affiliate websites were selling gift cards instead of illegal medications. Defendants Samir Taslimant, Javed Sunesra, and Zuned Sunesra are alleged to have laundered the money by funneling the proceeds of these drug sales from the United States to Canada, and then on to bank accounts in the Republic of Mauritius, Dubai, and Morocco.

The law provides for a maximum total sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain of the defendants, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant. Defendant Zuned Sunesra is currently being held without bond, while the government is commencing extradition proceedings against the remaining defendants.

Assistant United States Attorneys Eric S. Rosen and Conor Lamb are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation leading to the second superseding indictment in this case. A second superseding indictment is an accusation. A defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.