Lynn man sentenced for prescription drug scheme

LYNN – A Lynn man convicted of smuggling performance enhancing drugs over the Internet will spend the next 42 months behind bars, the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Unit announced Monday.Christopher Chase, 27, formerly of Lynn, was sentenced by a U.S. District Court Judge in New Hampshire Monday to 42 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in an Internet prescription drug scheme.Chase and two other defendants pleaded guilty to money laundering and conspiracy charges in February, after they were accused of smuggling and illegally distributing anabolic steroids, human growth hormone (HGH), insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and clenbuterol via the Internet.The indictment also alleged that Chase laundered money by sending it to various foreign countries including China and Moldova.The substances alleged in the indictment are illegal prescription drugs which were manufactured abroad, primarily in China, as well as other foreign countries. HGH and IGF-1 are injectable drugs and some forms of the anabolic steroids were also injectable.The indictment alleged Chase and two co-defendants illegally imported the aforementioned prescription drugs and introduced them into interstate commerce without the prescription of a licensed medical doctor or other licensed medical professionals.Many of the packages that were shipped into the United States contained the prescription drugs but falsely declared that the packages contained test tube samples, mold samples, glass samples, measuring cups and glassware. The prescription drugs did not bear adequate directions for use in that the labeling did not contain directions under which a layperson could use the drugs safely and for their intended uses.All of the drugs sold by Chase were sold without a prescription and were nevertheless distributed despite the obvious dangers associated with unsupervised use of prescription drugs.Moreover, none of the drugs were approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe or effective for body-building, the use for which the defendant marketed the drugs. Anabolic steroids are Schedule III controlled substances and are not FDA-approved for body-building. HGH is not approved by the FDA for body-building and may only be lawfully distributed for the treatment of disease or other recognized medical conditions as authorized by the FDA.Clenbuterol is not approved by the FDA for any use in humans and IGF is not approved by FDA for any adult use. Chase nevertheless sold these drugs to customers throughout the United States for a use for which the drugs had not been determined by the FDA to be safe and effective.Chase allegedly obtained the drugs from foreign sources with no assurance that the drugs were manufactured under sanitary conditions or that the drugs were what they were purported to be.The FDA approval process is not limited to a clinical review; it includes a review of the manufacturing process and the drug’s chemical composition, labeling and packaging. The drugs sold by the defendant originated in countries such as China, Turkey, Poland and Romania and were not subject to the FDA’s comprehensive review. Thus, Chase not only sold the prescription drugs to customers who lacked a prescription and for a use not approved by the FDA, he also sold drugs manufactured and packaged under unknown conditions, the court decided.Once the prescription drugs entered the United States, they were distributed over the Internet through Web sites and customers paid for the prescription drugs using credit cards and cash payments sent through the mail or by Western Union, MoneyGram, Pay Pal and PayByCheck.Most of the prescription drugs were paid for by credit card from customers in New Hampshire and throughout the United States. To enable the customers to pay for the illegally distributed prescription drugs, Chase obtained 20 merchant accounts in his own name and also in the names of the other participants in the scheme. Between Dec. 1