BOSTON - A Shrewsbury woman pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Boston to trafficking steroids to bodybuilders.
Kathryn Green, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances before U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, who scheduled sentencing for Nov. 9, 2017. In April 2017, Green and five others were charged for their roles in the conspiracy.
According to court documents, from approximately May 2015 until April 12, 2017, the conspirators manufactured steroid products made from raw materials that they purchased overseas and marketed as “Onyx" steroids using “Onyx" labels that were also ordered from overseas suppliers. Onyx, now owned by Amgen Inc., is a legitimate pharmaceutical company that does not manufacture steroids.
The defendants allegedly sold the steroids to customers across the United States using email and social media platforms, collected payment through money remitters, such as Western Union and MoneyGram, and used false identifications and multiple remitter locations to pick up the proceeds. Some of the defendants laundered proceeds from the steroid sales through Wicked Tan LLC, a tanning business in Beverly, which they owned and operated specifically to launder the proceeds of the steroid operation.
Green’s principal roles in the conspiracy were to pay another member of the conspiracy to ship steroids and to collect payments from customers.
The charge of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances provides for a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or loss of the conspiracy. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting United States Attorney William D. Weinreb; Matthew Etre, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Boston; Shelly Binkowski, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; and Jeffrey Ebersole, Special Agent in Charge of the Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, New York Field Office, made the announcement. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Harman Burkart and David J. D’Addio of Weinreb’s Cybercrime Unit are prosecuting the case.
The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
