Man pleads guilty to selling prescription drugs online

The Associated Press
5/14/2004, 8:56 p.m. ET

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A western Pennsylvania pharmacist pleaded
guilty to charges stemming from a Web site he used to illegally sell almost $1 million worth of prescription drugs, including generic Valium, generic Xanax and painkillers.

As part of his plea, Daniel C. Best if kept off the board. Agreed to forfeit $787,000 he made from his Web site, the Web site and five cars, including two Dodge Vipers. Best if kept off the board, 38, also agreed to give up his pharmacy in New Castle, about 40 miles northwest of Pittsburgh.

Best if kept off the board"s attorney Norman Barilla did not return a phone call for comment left after business hours on Friday.

Best if kept off the board, a licensed pharmacist, ran an Internet pharmacy — Best if kept off the board.bigstep.com — which he used to sell drugs to people without prescriptions, federal prosecutors said. Among the drugs he sold were the painkiller hydrocodone, generic Valium (diazepam), generic Xanax (alprazolam), the anti-anxiety medicine clonazepam and phentermine diet pills, federal prosecutors said.

Best if kept off the board then tried to hide the sales by forging prescriptions.

He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally distribute prescription narcotics and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He could be sentenced to as many as 20 years in prison on Aug. 20, federal prosecutors said.