Food and Drug Administration 
Office of Criminal Investigations

A man who unlawfully sold unapproved versions of drugs used to treat erectile dysfunction was sentenced on February 7, 2012, to serve 60 days in jail.

David Kempema, age 51, from Sioux City, Iowa, received the prison term after a November 1, 2011, guilty plea to one count of trafficking misbranded drugs with intent to defraud or mislead.

In a plea agreement, Kempema admitted that, from about October 13, 2009, through about July 9, 2011, he advertised and offered for sale drugs purporting to be Viagra and Cialis. Kempema used the business names Generics Direct, La Costa Direct, and Canned Ads, to market the drugs. When Kempema received an order for Viagra, he supplied the customer with Viprogra-100. When he received an order for Cialis, he supplied the customer with V-Tada 20. Neither the Viprogra-100 nor the V-Tada 20 were approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and neither drug included any directions for use. Kempema obtained the drugs from India and sold them to customers in the United States without any prescription. In order to mislead customers and law enforcement, Kempema shipped the drugs using a fake return address from Costa Rica.

In the plea agreement, Kempema admitted selling approximately 2505 Viprogra-100 pills and approximately 1263 V-Tada 20 pills. He received approximately $23,723.25 in proceeds from the sales. Kempema agreed to forfeit the money he received from the sales.

“The public must have confidence that prescription drugs are properly distributed and dispensed,” said Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Holland of FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations, Kansas City Field Office. “The FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations will aggressively pursue those who seek to profit from the distribution of misbranded drugs.”

Kempema was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett. Kempema was sentenced to 60 days in jail. A special assessment of $100 was imposed, and he was ordered to make $23,723.25 in restitution to the manufacturers of Viagra and Cialis and customers who claimed economic harms, with the restitution to be paid using the forfeited funds. He must also serve a one-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Kempema was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the United States Marshal on a date yet to be set.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Peter Deegan and investigated by the FDA Office of Criminal Investigation.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is CR 11-4140 MWB.