Lisa Godbey Wood, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia, announced today that Bio-Med Plus, Martin J. Bradley III and Martin J. Bradley, Jr. were convicted by a jury of racketeering, money laundering and other charges in the United States District Court in Savannah, Georgia, following a six-week trial. Defendant Bradley III was convicted on two hundred and forty seven counts, including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering. Defendant Bradley, Jr. was convicted of racketeering, money laundering conspiracy and two counts of a failure to report a foreign financial interest.

 In addition to the Bradleys and Bio-Med Plus, Defendant Albert Tellechea was convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to pay kickbacks to health care providers. Five other individual Defendants, Jose Trespalacios, Edwin Rivera, Marlene Caceres, Steven Getz and Sara Griffin were acquitted of racketeering charges.

The case arose out of an investigation into the unlawful purchase and sale of prescription drugs, primarily blood derivatives used in the treatment of cancer, AIDS, hemophilia and other critical care illnesses. The evidence at trial showed that from 1996 through 2002, Defendants Bradley III, Bradley, Jr. and Bio-Med Plus, a Florida pharmaceutical wholesale distributor, were engaged in the buying and selling of tens of millions of dollars worth of fraudulently obtained prescription drugs, including drugs already paid for by the Florida and California Medicaid programs.

Defendants Bradley III, Bradley, Jr., Tellechea and Bio-Med Plus will be sentenced upon the completion of pre-sentence investigation reports. Each racketeering charge alone carries maximum statutory penalties of twenty years imprisonment; a $250,000 fine; and three years of supervised release. Additionally, the Government is seeking to forfeit assets worth more than $39,000,000.00 owned by Defendants Bradley III, Bradley, Jr. and Bio-Med Plus. After the verdicts were returned, Bradley III’s bond was revoked and he was taken into custody.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations Division, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the State of Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. The Government was represented by Jim Durham, as lead prosecutor, Jeff Buerstatte, Joe Newman and Fred Kramer, Assistant United States Attorneys for the Southern District of Georgia.