A jury has found a Lexington psychiatrist guilty of selling non-FDA-approved drugs used to treat addiction to patients over a 10-year period, according to the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office.
On Friday, Rahim Shafa, 66, was found guilty of international money laundering, illegally importing goods in violation of the law, and receiving and delivering counterfeit branded drugs, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. press release. The guilty verdict was the result of a two-week trial that followed two grand jury indictments against Shafa, one in August 2020 and the second superseded in June 2021.
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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Shafa owned and operated a psychiatric clinic called Novel Psychopharmacology. From approximately January 2008 to approximately January 2018, he participated in an international money laundering scheme that enabled him to purchase naltrexone pellet implants, disulfiram pellet implants, and disulfiram injection from Hong Kong.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FDA has approved the use of certain forms of naltrexone and disulfiram as treatments for alcohol and opioid addiction disorders. However, implantable pellet forms of these drugs are not included in FDA-approved treatments.
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According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Shafa falsified shipping documents to conceal the fact that the drugs were being shipped from Hong Kong. For example, a package containing naltrexone pellet implants was incorrectly declared as “plastic beads in a plastic tube.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Shafa sold these drugs to patients and implanted them in their bodies without fully informing them of the risks of the drugs. Patients testified at trial that the implants caused infections and other health complications.
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“For nearly a decade, this defendant manipulated and abused our health care system. They circumvented the process,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said in a statement. “This action put patient safety at risk and undermined the very foundations of our regulatory system.”
Shafa is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court on May 15, according to U.S. prosecutors. The charges could carry a total of up to 41 years in prison, up to six years of supervised release, and up to $501,000 in fines.
