A 29-year-old Indian doctor has been sentenced to 30 years in prison by a US court for illegally selling prescription pills, smuggled from India, through his massive Internet pharmacy network.
Akhil Bansal, an MBA student at Temple University in Philadelphia, operated a network that distributed 11 million prescription pills to 60,000 Americans.
"The evidence of your guilt is overwhelming, sir.... You distributed poison throughout the country," US District Judge Paul Diamond said.
The sentencing came 32 months after Bansal was arrested with a plane ticket to India following a two-year probe dubbed Operation Cyberchase. It was US Drug Enforcement Administration's first-ever major investigation of its type.
Diamond said that Bansal showed no remorse whatsoever and that it was impossible to believe a trained doctor would not know that the pills involved require a prescription.
Defense lawyer Paul J. Hetznecker told the judge that Bansal 'has been demonized by his own stubbornness and apparent arrogance in the courtroom.'
Hetzneicker said Bansal grew up in a strict family and did what he did to please his father.
"Behind the arrogance is a tremendous amount of pain," he was quoted as saying by Philadelphia Inquirer, adding, "I do see a humbled and scared individual."
Bansal has said he was looking forward to his appeal.
The Bansal family operated a wholesale network, supplying dozens of illegal online pharmacies, offering Viagra, sedatives and painkillers without a prescription.
By shipping 75,000 pills a day from a New York safe house, the Bansals reaped roughly $8 million.
