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Vendor of Viagra-like tablets gets 2-year probation sentence
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Posted on Jul 24 2011
The federal court imposed Friday a two-year probation sentence on a retail store operator who engaged in selling unapproved erectile dysfunction drugs or Viagra-like tablets.
U.S. District Court for the NMI visiting judge William Q. Hayes ordered Wei Yuan Ou to pay a $500 fine and $50 in special assessment fee.
Assistant U.S. attorney Eric O’Malley had recommended that Ou be sentenced to a year of probation and that he be ordered to pay the minimum fines.
Attorney Stephen C. Woodruff served as counsel for the 46-year-old Ou.
Ou pleaded guilty to two counts of selling misbranded drugs in interstate commerce. The offense carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison or less and a fine of not more than $1,000.
Garrett Chinn, special agent with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations Honolulu Domicile Office, stated in his report that Ou bought the erectile dysfunction drugs in China and sold them at his retail store, the SU US MART.
Chinn said an undercover agent was able to buy 17 tablets of the drug worth $70 from Ou on Feb. 14, 2011, and 12 more tablets worth $48 on Feb. 17, 2011.
Erectile dysfunction drugs like Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra are medicines that require a doctor’s prescription for purchase.
