More Absurdity from the DOJ & Melinda Haag

[rives]

10 million packages a day, the government won't provide them with a list of shippers to avoid, but Fed Ex is responsible for delivering prescription drugs from illegal pharmacies? This administration is running amuck.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-07-17/fedex-indicted-for-distributing-controlled-drugs-online


FedEx Indicted for Shipping Drugs for Online Pharmacies
FedEx Corp. was indicted for delivering prescription pain pills, sedatives, anti-anxiety drugs and other controlled substances for illegal Internet pharmacies. A conviction could be “material,” the company said today in a regulatory filing.
The operator of the world’s largest (FDX:US) cargo airline was charged by the U.S. with 15 counts of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and misbranded drugs and drug trafficking that carry a potential fine of twice the gains from the conduct, alleged to be at least $820 million for it and co-conspirators.
Yesterday’s indictment in San Francisco federal court comes more than a year after United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS:US) agreed to forfeit $40 million in payments it received from illicit online pharmacies under a non-prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department.

FedEx delivered drugs to Internet pharmacies that supplied pills to customers who filled out online questionnaires, and were never examined by doctors -- knowing these practices violated federal and state drug laws, the government alleged.
The company vowed to fight the charges, saying it can’t be responsible for the contents of the 10 million packages it transports daily and that policing customers would violate their privacy.


Claims Innocence
“FedEx is innocent,” Patrick Fitzgerald, a spokesman for the Memphis, Tennessee-based company, said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “We will plead not guilty. We will defend against this attack on the integrity and good name of FedEx and its employees.”

FedEx fell 11 cents to $151.78 at 11:30 a.m. in New York trading.
FedEx said last year that an indictment or prosecution in the case would threaten a basic tenet of its shipping business - - not opening packages. Revenue from online pharmaceutical shipments is a small percentage of total sales, the company previously said. FedEx reported $44.3 billion in revenue for fiscal 2013.
If convicted, the company could face fines, penalties, forfeiture and compliance conditions, it said today in the regulatory filing.

“Given the early stage of this proceeding, we cannot estimate the amount or range of loss, if any; however, it is reasonably possible that it could be material if we are convicted,” according to the filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.


Pharmacy List
FedEx said yesterday it repeatedly asked the government for a list of illegal pharmacies so it would know which ones not to do business with. The U.S. never gave it such a list, it said.
The company knew it was delivering drugs to dealers and addicts, with couriers in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia expressing concerns circulated to senior managers that FedEx trucks were stopped on the road by online pharmacy customers demanding packages of pills, according to the indictment. Some delivery addresses were parking lots or vacant homes, prosecutors said.

“This indictment highlights the importance of holding corporations that knowingly enable illegal activity responsible for their role in aiding criminal behavior,” U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in San Francisco said in a statement.


Illegal Deliveries
The illegal deliveries began in 2000, Haag said, and FedEx continued to do business with one Internet pharmacy whose manager had been arrested for violating drug laws. She said the company also served a fulfillment pharmacy that supplied Internet pharmacies that were shut by law enforcement, with their owners and doctors convicted of illegally distributing drugs.
UPS, in its March 2013 agreement (UPS:US), acknowledged doing business with online pharmacies even after it learned they were illegally distributing controlled substances without requiring valid prescriptions.

UPS, based in Atlanta, also agreed to establish a compliance program designed to ensure such customers won’t be able to use its services to illegally distribute drugs.
Under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, a shipping or freight company is allowed to possess and transport drugs “in the lawful and usual course of its business” without registering with drug enforcement authorities. The law regulates the manufacture and distribution of narcotics and certain other drugs and chemicals used in the illegal production of controlled substances.

Consumers are turning to online pharmacies because of the convenience and privacy of purchasing medicines there, and as insurance companies encourage home delivery for long-term medications, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website.

The case is U.S. v. FedEx Corp. (FDX:US), 14-cr-00380, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

To contact the reporters on this story: Karen Gullo in federal court in San Francisco at [email protected]; Mary Schlangenstein in Dallas at [email protected]

 

[Wiggs Dannyboy]

On The Other Hand.....

On The Other Hand.....

Something else that this administration is doing:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/18/drug-sentencing-retroactivity_n_5600121.html

An Obscure Commission Just Voted To Shorten The Sentences Of 46,000 Federal Drug Offenders

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Sentencing Commission on Friday afternoon voted unanimously to allow federal prisoners behind bars for certain drug trafficking crimes to petition to have their sentences reduced. The change is expected to impact around 46,000 current federal prisoners, and to lower sentences by an average of more than two years.

The commission, made up of seven people, voted to allow tens of thousands of prisoners to petition judges for a sentencing reduction based on new guidelines. The implementation of the change will be delayed, however, with the first prisoners affected by the change likely to be released early in November 2015.

“This amendment received unanimous support from Commissioners because it is a measured approach,” Judge Patti B. Saris, the chairwoman of the Sentencing Commission, said in a statement. “It reduces prison costs and populations and responds to statutory and guidelines changes since the drug guidelines were initially developed, while safeguarding public safety."

The Justice Department initially had not backed the whole proposal, instead suggesting a middle path that would only make around 27,000 prisoners eligible. That position was the result of a compromise, because many U.S. Attorneys across the country had been opposed to any retroactive reforms.

But the Justice Department now supports the change.

"We have been in ongoing discussions with the Commission during its deliberations on this issue, and conveyed the department's support for this balanced approach," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement released Friday. "In the interest of fairness, it makes sense to apply changes to the sentencing guidelines retroactively, and the idea of a one-year implementation delay will adequately address public safety concerns by ensuring that judges have adequate time to consider whether an eligible individual is an appropriate candidate for a reduced sentence."

Criminal justice advocates praised the change as a matter of fairness.

“Today, seven people unanimously decided to change the lives of tens of thousands of families whose loved ones were given overly long drug sentences,” Families Against Mandatory Minimums President Julie Stewart said in a statement. “FAMM commends the U.S. Sentencing Commission for its boldness, as well as federal judges, members of Congress, reform groups, and the more than 60,000 letter writers who joined with FAMM to demand that the Commission grant full retroactivity."

“As we continue the march toward fairness in our country’s failed, racially biased sentencing policies, we can’t leave behind those who had the bad luck to receive their sentences before the policies were changed,” said ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Jesselyn McCurdy. “Making these new guidelines retroactive will offer relief to thousands of people who received overly harsh sentences under the old sentencing guidelines. The Sentencing Commission absolutely did the right thing today by putting the power to decide retroactivity in judges’ hands.”

In theory, Congress could block the amendment, but that would require both houses to pass a measure to stop the change, and for President Barack Obama to sign off on killing the proposal. Given the Obama administration's new support for the change, that is extremely unlikely.

The delay in implementation, the Sentencing Commission said, "will allow judges more time to consider whether each eligible offender is an appropriate candidate for a sentence reduction and will give the government adequate time to object to sentence reductions when prosecutors believe public safety may be at risk." It will also allow probation officers and the Bureau of Prisons to "ensure that each prisoner receives transitional services including placement in halfway houses to help increase the chances of successful reentry into society."


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[rives]

Yeah, Holder and the DOJ are sparkling examples of........ something. Even a broken clock gets it right twice a day.