Israeli company involved in illegal online pharmacy case

Eighteen people indicted in California on racketeering, other charges for operating internet business that illegally sold prescription drugs

Eighteen people have been indicted in California on racketeering and other charges for operating an Internet business that illegally sold prescription drugs, the US Justice Department said on Thursday.

Department officials said the 313-count indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in San Diego last week and unsealed on Thursday, charged the defendants with operating an online pharmaceutical distribution network known as Affpower in the United States and abroad.

The business located its administrative headquarters in Costa Rica and its computer servers in Cyprus. It relied on foreign-based agencies, including RX Payments Ltd of Tel-Aviv, to process credit card transactions, and used various bank accounts and an accounting firm in Cyprus in an attempt to conceal its illegal proceeds from US authorities, the officials said. More...