A Man Is Sentenced to 76 Months in Federal Prison for His Involvement in a Complex Pharmaceutical Fraud Scheme
On Friday, a Miami federal judge sentenced a 38-year-old Arizona resident to 76 months in federal prison for his role in a sophisticated fraud scheme involving millions of dollars in diverted pharmaceutical drugs.
Joshua Ryan Joles managed one of the wholesale companies involved in the scheme. Rather than pay full price to drug manufacturers for HIV, cancer, and other expensive medications, Joles bought his wholesale supply at a discount from co-conspirators who obtained the drugs on the streets, from black market sellers. While the drugs were branded medications, produced by the original pharmaceutical developers, they had been diverted from legitimate, secure supply chains to the black market through health care fraud and other illegal means. Once purchased from the black-market sellers, the co-conspirators re-packaged the drugs and sold them to Joles, complete with fabricated documentation to disguise the drugs’ origins. Joles knew he was buying illegally diverted drugs that were not from legitimate suppliers. Nevertheless, he sold the diverted drugs to unwitting retail pharmacies and consumers at big mark-ups. During the conspiracy, which lasted from 2014 to 2019, $78 million in illegal proceeds was laundered through shell company bank account operated by Joles’ co-conspirators.
On May 27, Joles pled guilty to one count of conspiring to traffic in medical products with false documentation and one count of conspiring to launder money.
