A Lexington, Mass. doctor was convicted following a 14-day jury trial in connection with an international money laundering scheme involving importing illegal, misbranded drugs. Rahim Shafa, 66, was convicted of international money laundering, illegally importing merchandise contrary to law and receiving and delivering misbranded drugs. Shafa was a psychiatrist who owned and operated Novel Psychopharmacology. From approximately January 2008 through January 2018, Shafa engaged in an international money laundering scheme to purchase naltrexone pellet implants as well as disulfiram pellet implants and injections from Hong Kong. Naltrexone and disulfiram are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in certain forms for the treatment of alcohol dependence and alcohol and opioid dependence, respectively. However, the implantable pellet form of the drug that Shafa purchased are not approved by the FDA. Shafa falsified shipping documents to conceal that the packages containing the drugs were shipped from Hong Kong to Shafa in Massachusetts. For example, packages containing naltrexone pellet implants were falsely declared as ‘plastic beads in plastic tubes’ in shipping documents. Shafa sold these drugs to patients of Novel and implanted them into patients’ bodies, without fully understanding the risks of the drugs. Patients testified at trial regarding infections and complications they experienced from the pellet implantation procedure.
