PHILADELPHIA - Eric Vern Fox, 45, a pharmacist living in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty today to a money laundering conspiracy, in violation of federal money laundering laws. These charges were transferred from the Eastern District of Texas for guilty plea and sentencing. Between June 2002 and September 2007, Fox owned and operated two compounding pharmacies in this district: the Medicine Shoppe, located at 578 Lancaster Avenue, Berwyn, PA, and Compounding Rx Apothecary, located at 81 Lancaster Avenue, Store #4, Malvern, PA.
The indictment alleges that from June 2002 until September 2007, Fox agreed with the owners and operators of an illegal internet pharmacy, the Madison Pain Clinic, located in Texas, to compound millions of hydrocodone pills that the Madison Pain Clinic sold to internet customers under fraudulent “prescriptions," outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.
The money laundering charge, to which Fox pleaded guilty, alleges that between June 2002 and September 2007, Fox was paid by the Madison Pain Clinic for the hydrocodone pills that the clinic sold to its internet customers, and agreed to launder the proceeds of this illegal activity totaling at least $4.5 million. The plea agreement calls for Fox to receive an agreed-upon sentence of 12 months and a day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The plea agreement also requires Fox to forfeit the sum of $2 million and pay an assessment of $100. U.S. District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick scheduled a sentencing hearing for November 8, 2013.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations. In this district it is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mary E. Crawley.
UNITED STATES ATTORNEY'S OFFICE, EASTERN DISTRICTof PENNSYLVANIA
Suite 1250, 615 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
PATTY HARTMAN, Media Contact, 215-861-8525
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
