A HOUSE in Co Monaghan has been raided under a High Court order secured by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer against a man who allegedly masterminded a lucrative operation selling fake Viagra over the internet.
The “Viagra” and other counterfeit drugs allegedly sold by the man were made in China.
Mr Justice Peter Kelly said there was possible risk to public health “and even life” due to counterfeit drugs being offered for sale over the internet to people “foolish enough” to buy them.
Pfizer incorporated and related companies allege three UK nationals – Andrew Mills, also known as Andrew Butcher, of Co Monaghan, and his parents Brian and Sarah Mills – have for three years been offering for sale large quantities of fake Viagra and other drugs with a minimum estimated turnover of £465,000.
Pfizer, which made some €1.9 billion from worldwide sales of Viagra in 2008 with gross margins of 30 per cent on the tablets, claims the defendants’ actions have inflicted economic damage on it with estimated losses of €333,323.
It alleges a telephone system with 16 extensions was operated from Andrew Mills’s property at Smotrin, Bragan, to help facilitate the counterfeit drug sales. Mr Mills, who also has addresses in England, is alleged to have set up the operation which has now apparently ceased due to actions by Pfizer following a year-long investigation.
Pfizer began the investigation last year. Its undercover investigators secretly recorded conversations with Andrew Mills who allegedly said credit unions in Ireland were an easy way of “losing” money as the money “sort of goes off record . . . they are a very good way of sort of cleaning a bit of money up”.
Mr Mills also allegedly said he used false papers to open an Ulster Bank business account here last March and obtain a €220,000 mortgage on his Smotrin property.
He operated near the Border because a car with Northern Ireland plates was unlikely to be stopped by gardaí which “makes me happier driving around with a few thousands boxes of whatever in the car”, he allegedly said.
Mr Mills allegedly said he was earning £10,000 a year from the operation three years ago but last year earned “probably £300,000”.
He allegedly said up to 15,000 boxes of Viagra had to be bought at a time from China, indicated he had orders from the US and Canada and was “keen to expand into a wholesale side”.
Pfizer claims the defendants offered for sale other counterfeit drugs (some but not all made by Pfizer) including Kamagra, Tadalafil, Lovegra and Cialis, via websites particularly www.viagrafast.co.uk, over the phone and by selling wholesale to trade customers. Up to April 2007, the viagrafast website was offering “Genuine Pfizer . . . THE REAL THING!” 100mg Viagra in boxes of four for €20, it is claimed.
Mr Justice Kelly this week made an order allowing agents for Pfizer search and seize documents and other material from the premises at Smotrin.
Declan McGrath, for Pfizer, sought the order as an ancillary order to legal proceedings in England against Andrew Mills and his parents over alleged infringement of Pfizer’s trademarks. Mr McGrath sought a temporary ban on publicity on grounds the defendant, if forewarned, was likely to destroy records and dissipate assets. The judge banned publicity until after the raid and when the matter returned to court.
The British High Court in London, which will hear the substantial case against the three defendants, made orders on Monday for raids on premises in England last Wednesday, in tandem with the raid here.
Raids took place from 8am on Wednesday, said Mr McGrath. There were concerns about a missing hard drive, another smashed hard drive and a missing SIM card. It had been expected there would be three laptops on the premises but there was just “an oldish one”.
The judge continued the order restraining Mr Mills reducing his assets, except for living expenses of £1,000 weekly and legal fees of €10,000, and directed the material seized could be sent to the Chinese authorities for a possible investigation into the source of the counterfeit drugs. Pfizer said the operation had been selling large quantities of counterfeit Viagra for at least three years.
