South Florida Supplier to Alber Pleads Guilty
Weston Florida resident Michael A. Carlow pleaded guilty in federal court in Kansas City yesterday to acting as the middleman in the sale of 200,000 bottles of fake and illegally imported Lipitor, a cholesterol drug, to Doug Albers' company, Albers Medical Distributors. Carlow, 54, faces up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine under his plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney in western Missouri where Alber was based. Charges against Carlow for racketeering, organized fraud and illegal drug sales are also also pending in South Florida. Carlow's attorney, Lance David Sandage, has been quoted saying Carlow is likely to get the maximum five year sentence in the Missouri case because of the sophistication of the conspiracy and the number of victims.
According to prosecutors, Carlow sold $42 million of illegal drugs to Albers Medical Distributors including $9 million of fake Lipitor, resulting in one of the nation's largest drug recalls. Carlow's associates made the counterfeit Lipitor in a Miami warehouse and smuggled Lipitor made for sale only in South Americainto the U.S. Carlow's role was to create a fake paper trail to make the phony drugs seem genuine.