09/29/2009

News / Doctor Who Prescribed Diet Drugs Over the Internet Sentenced in Federal Court

LOUISVILLE, KY – United States Attorney Candace G. Hill of the Western District of Kentucky announced today that Tufan Senler, age 50, of Louisville, Kentucky, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John G. Heyburn, II. Senlar, a physician, had previously pled guilty to an Information which charged him with dispensing and distributing controlled substances, exporting controlled substances to foreign countries without a permit, money laundering and misbranding of drugs.

The Information alleged that between 2002 and 2005, Senler, sold diet prescription drugs over the internet through his website dietprescriptions.com.

Senler received a sentence of 12 months home incarceration, and was ordered to pay a fine of $5,000. Senler admitted that he received approximately $15 million from his role in the above offenses. As part of the sentencing, Senler agreed to forfeit $3,114,035.36 of those illegal personal profits.

According to the facts contained in Senler’s plea agreement, Senler operated two businesses. Kentucky Body Works, was a business in which Senler operated his weight loss clinic, and Science of Better Living was a business which operated his website. Senler admitted that he dispensed, distributed and exported diet prescription drugs through his website to customers who did not have valid prescriptions. He further admitted he did not engage in a legitimate doctor-patient relationship with the customers since he had no face-to-face contact with the customers who ultimately purchased the drugs. Additionally, Senler agreed that the prescription drugs were being provided outside the standard legitimate practice of medicine. Finally, the prescription drugs issued were not issued in compliance with Food and Drug Administration requirements, and thus they were adulterated and/or misbranded.

Senler also admitted that did not have a valid exportation permit issued by the Attorney General of the United States during the relevant time period. Thus, Senler could not legally dispense or distribute controlled non-narcotic drugs to other countries.

Additionally, Senler admitted that he engaged in monetary transactions with the proceeds of this illegal activity. Customers’ deposits were placed into a Kentucky Body Works’ bank account and then subsequently transferred to Senler’s personal bank account. Some of these proceeds were used to make several purchases of property.

The case was prosecuted by Lettricea Jefferson-Webb and Amy Sullivan of the United States Attorney’s Office, and was investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Kentucky State Police, Food & Drug Administration - Office of Criminal Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service, and the United States Postal Inspection Service.

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/states/newsrel/2009/detroit092309.html

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