Ihenacho and her husband, Baldwin Ihenacho, a registered pharmacist, co-owned and operated Meetinghouse Community Pharmacy in Dorchester. From about October 2007 and continuing to October 2008, Ihenacho and her husband conspired and agreed with others to intentionally distribute prescriptions that were issued outside of the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose. The controlled substances included but were not limited to: Phendimetrazine Tartrate (used for weight loss), Alprazolam (also known as Xanax, used to treat anxiety), Clonazepam (used to treat seizure or panic disorders), Diazepam (used to treat anxiety, alcohol withdrawal symptoms or muscle spasms), Diethylpropion HCL (used as an appetite suppressant), Lorazepam (used to treat anxiety), Phentermine, Phentermine Blue and Phentermine Yellow (all used for weight loss) and Zolpidem Tartrate (used to treat insomnia).
Meetinghouse was the primary fulfillment pharmacy for Golden Island Investment or GoldenIGroup, an Internet pharmacy operation located in the Dominican Republic. Consumers who wished to obtain certain drugs, but who did not have a prescription from a physician to obtain them, would surf the web for a site that offered to sell the desired medications. The customers were not asked to supply medical records and may or may not have been asked to answer a brief medical questionnaire. Website operators approved the orders and asked the patient to pay for the drugs requested using a major credit card. They would then send a request to someone, in some instances a doctor (who had never seen or met the patient) and in some instances a lay person, to “authorize” the order.
…During the height of its operation, Meetinghouse shipped approximately 1,000 packages of drugs per week to customers all over the United States; customers who did not have a prescription for the drugs that were dispensed. During the course of the Internet pharmacy enterprise, Meetinghouse dispensed, or caused to be dispensed, over 3.5 million pills, all without the required valid prescriptions. For their dispensing services, Ihenacho and her husband received approximately $1.2 million in payment from the Internet pharmacy operations. These funds were transferred to Ihenacho’s U.S. account, from accounts located in the Dominican Republic, constituting international money laundering.
FBI Press release link: here