Mexican Steroid Pharmacy Costs Google Half Billion Dollars

**Prince** · 01-31-2012, 07:56 AM

Mexican Steroid Pharmacy Costs Google Half Billion Dollars
By Millard Baker ~ source

Google executives knowingly allowed a Mexican pharmacy to advertise anabolic steroids and other bodybuilding drugs to customers in the United States according to the government informant used to set up the bust. Federal prosecutors alleged that this was the case of a corporate entity, and not merely a couple of rogue customer service employees, making the decision to promote illegal pharmacies. Google paid a $500,000,000 forfeiture, the largest in history, when they entered into a nonprosecution agreement with the government.

Anabolic steroids played a major role in the government’s case against Google. Federal investigators used a convicted con artist, who had previously created a steroid pharmacy website based in Mexico, to help them bring down Google.

The con artist who helped the feds was named David Whitaker. Whitaker had operated a website that sold iPods and other consumer electronics below market-value. He collected millions of dollars from customers, never shipped the merchandise and fled to Mexico where he set up a steroid pharmacy catering to bodybuilders in 2006.

Whitaker was arrested in Mexico and extradited to the United States in 2008. He was indicted on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy and commercial bribery in the iPod case and faced up to 65-years in prison. That was when Whitaker made his final big sales pitch when he told the government how he used Google’s AdSense to sell anabolic steroids and human growth hormone to customers in the United States. He told the government that Google helped him sell steroids to U.S. customers without a prescription and that they were shipped from Mexico. And he could prove it.

The government used Whitaker to pose as the agent behind the Mexican-based steroid pharmacies SportsDrugs.net and NotGrowingOldEasy.com. SportsDrugs.net was set up to look “as if a Mexican drug lord had built a website to sell HGH and steroids” according to Whitaker.

Google initially rejected the advertisements submitted to the Adsense program. However, Whitaker found a way to bypass the automatic verification system and talk to Google ad executives on the phone. Google executives worked closely with Whitaker to bypass the internal verification system and start promoting the steroid pharmacies. The steroid pharmacies initially only allowed customers to order steroids by submitting a form but eventually included direct links to purchase product.

The government collected over four million pages of internal emails, documents and witness testimony in their case against Google. The evidence included dozens of recorded phone calls and emails correspondences between Whitaker and Google in which the illegal activity was described in some detail.

Google was aware that U.S. customs had often seized steroid shipments shipped from Mexico and that the owner of one steroid pharmacy dreamed of becoming “the biggest steroid dealer in the United States.” Even the Google co-founder and future Chief Executive Officer was aware of the steroid business.

“We simply know from the documents we reviewed and witnesses we interviewed that Larry Page knew what was going on,” according to Peter Neronja, the United States Attorney District of Rhode Island, who was responsible for the investigation.

Nonetheless, Google may not have actually violated the law. While Google acknowledged they played a role in advertising illegal pharmacies, it should be noted that Google did not plead guilty. The $500,000,000 penalty was not considered a criminal fine or civil monetary penalty. Instead, it was classified as a forfeiture.

Google had no involvement whatsoever in the actual introduction or delivery of pharmaceuticals into the United States. But the government still accused Google of being an accomplice to the crime by allowing steroid pharmacies to advertise on Adsense. The government believed that Google’s role was similar to that of companies that actually shipped illegal drugs.

Such a position on accomplice liability by the government clearly could have been open to challenge if the case ended up in court. However, a settlement was likely the best arrangement for both parties. Google could avoid a highly embarrassing expose of their internal operations in court and the government could avoid scrutiny on their position on accomplice liability while collecting a nice half-billion dollar forfeiture for their efforts.

Meanwhile, Whitaker escaped a potential 65-years in prison and was sentenced to 6 years for his extraordinary cooperation in the case.

**Retlaw** · 01-31-2012, 07:58 AM

Crime don't pay !

**Evil Eagle** · 01-31-2012, 08:07 AM

Since when is 500k a "half billion"?

**Prince** · 01-31-2012, 08:34 AM

Originally Posted by Evil Eagle

Since when is 500k a "half billion"?

lol, I did not write it but I just edited that.

**Big Smoothy** · 01-31-2012, 08:36 AM

So, the Feds press them and extort $500K.....Go figure.

**Evil Eagle** · 01-31-2012, 08:39 AM

Originally Posted by Prince

lol, I did not write it but I just edited that.

I didn't think you did Haha.

**Prince** · 01-31-2012, 08:39 AM

Originally Posted by Big Smoothy

So, the Feds press them and extort $500K.....Go figure.

that is what our government does, extort money.

**bundle** · 01-31-2012, 08:44 AM

6 vs 65 have a safe life witaker, bet those google lawyers worked overtime for loops

**ecot3c inside** · 01-31-2012, 09:15 AM

great, now google adsense is going to be even more of a fucking nazi.. i couldn't even use the word "smoke" or "high" in the description to the link. fml.

**LAM** · 01-31-2012, 11:17 AM

funny how corporations get away with things that the individual would get arrested and prosecuted for. this is how the US "free market" system works, what a fucking joke..

**PressuringChival** · 02-01-2012, 06:01 AM

Google adsense is controlled by the government and so is the results from Google.

**Boomer182** · 02-01-2012, 06:16 AM

Originally Posted by ecot3c inside

great, now google adsense is going to be even more of a fucking nazi.. i couldn't even use the word "smoke" or "high" in the description to the link. fml.

**maniclion** · 02-01-2012, 08:16 PM

Proof that the drug war is all about money. If the Feds had actually thought this was morally wrong and harmful to people they would have sought punishment for people involved, but knowing it's all a witch hunt they settled for the easy dough...

**Curt James** · 02-01-2012, 08:31 PM

Originally Posted by Evil Eagle

Since when is 500k a "half billion"?

Originally Posted by Prince

lol, I did not write it but I just edited that.

Originally Posted by Big Smoothy

So, the Feds press them and extort $500K.....Go figure.

Believe Millard missed some zeros.

More @ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/...ment-with-u-s/

**Little Guy** · 02-02-2012, 08:01 AM

I dont see how google did anything wrong.

**unclem** · 02-04-2012, 01:20 AM

Originally Posted by Evil Eagle

Since when is 500k a "half billion"?

it has9 digits so it is a half billion as 500 million is half billion. either that or i might be fucked up as theres some smart guys here who didnt pick it up so i could be wrong....lol...but yes our goverment at its best. 15 yrs to life for 70 oxycontin pills come on dea use your fucking heads. do something news worthy, like say, fix the borders, now your back on the mexican steroid kick. why are you not doing nothing to china. cause you know better to fuck w/ them or we wont have no money to borrow from. assholes...................

**Dark Geared God** · 02-04-2012, 01:21 AM

**Curt James** · 02-04-2012, 02:01 AM

Originally Posted by unclem

it has9 digits so it is a half billion as 500 million is half billion. either that or i might be fucked up as theres some smart guys here who didnt pick it up so i could be wrong....lol...but yes our goverment at its best. 15 yrs to life for 70 oxycontin pills come on dea use your fucking heads. do something news worthy, like say, fix the borders, now your back on the mexican steroid kick. why are you not doing nothing to china. cause you know better to fuck w/ them or we wont have no money to borrow from. assholes...................

The author wrote 500K instead of 500M by mistake, pretty sure. Especially from the other article/image posted.

And BAM! Nail on head, right? I'll wait for LAM to weigh in.

**hypo_glycemic** · 02-04-2012, 02:04 AM

That's 5 hundred "million" that was payed out.

Sent Via Tapatalk

**Curt James** · 02-04-2012, 02:07 AM

^^^^ Yup. And I saw somewhere that that is nothing to Google. They have, like, 40 billion in the bank?

**Curt James** · 02-04-2012, 02:09 AM

40,000,000,000 to 500,000,000 = 400 to 5

If you had four hundred bucks in your wallet, would you give a panhandler a five?

Edit: What about a panhandler with a nuke (lots of nukes) and the powarz of the IRS at his disposal?

**LAM** · 02-04-2012, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by unclem

why are you not doing nothing to china. cause you know better to fuck w/ them or we wont have no money to borrow from. assholes...................

this is pretty much what has gone down since the 80's in the US...

the main problem is not so much the borrowing it's why. the US ships raw materials to China which then assembles household goods, furniture, small electronics, etc. for sale back to US citizens. when the percentage of raw materials from the US is greater than 60% (+/1) those goods are then "imported" back into the US tariff free. this accounts for less than 3% of US personal consumption. roughly the other 90% of consumption is from US based company's and the remaining good/services are imported from a variety of other country's. in reality the US doesn't trade for shit, it's a big lie.

Here you can see the increase in the trade deficit with China since the 80's. the 80's being when US workers basically stopped seeing wage increases rise along with productivity, which had much to do with the decrease in the unionization rate as high unionization participation rates helps to bring up wages for all workers both union and non-union. it's effects on non-union employment, etc. are a different topic.

when China purchases US treasury notes it helps to keep interest rates down in the US, which makes the cost of capital or borrowing less expensive. it also means the return on savings/investments in the US are not very good at all once you account of inflation. this is why US large firms earn more profits overseas than the do in the US even with paying higher taxes, etc. in those country's. low interest rates also cause Wallstreet gamblers to come up with more ways to increase their short term profits which always comes with increased volatility. Here are the historic rate out of the FRB.

As the cost of labor has been increasing in China various products have shifted "assembly" etc. to other asian country's such as Taiwan, S. Korea, etc. at this point i'm pretty sure all of the have pegged their own currency;s against the USD, which essentially acts as a subsidy.

**basskiller** · 02-06-2012, 03:04 PM

Has anyone taken into consideration what this may do to the sites that allow steroid selling sites as advertisers??

**OfficerFarva** · 02-06-2012, 03:13 PM

Originally Posted by basskiller

Has anyone taken into consideration what this may do to the sites that allow steroid selling sites as advertisers??

They'd have to revert back to selling gorilla gloves and shake weights

**Getbig2** · 02-06-2012, 03:32 PM

Originally Posted by LAM

this is pretty much what has gone down since the 80's in the US...

the main problem is not so much the borrowing it's why. the US ships raw materials to China which then assembles household goods, furniture, small electronics, etc. for sale back to US citizens. when the percentage of raw materials from the US is greater than 60% (+/1) those goods are then "imported" back into the US tariff free. this accounts for less than 3% of US personal consumption. roughly the other 90% of consumption is from US based company's and the remaining good/services are imported from a variety of other country's. in reality the US doesn't trade for shit, it's a big lie.

Here you can see the increase in the trade deficit with China since the 80's. the 80's being when US workers basically stopped seeing wage increases rise along with productivity, which had much to do with the decrease in the unionization rate as high unionization participation rates helps to bring up wages for all workers both union and non-union. it's effects on non-union employment, etc. are a different topic.

when China purchases US treasury notes it helps to keep interest rates down in the US, which makes the cost of capital or borrowing less expensive. it also means the return on savings/investments in the US are not very good at all once you account of inflation. this is why US large firms earn more profits overseas than the do in the US even with paying higher taxes, etc. in those country's. low interest rates also cause Wallstreet gamblers to come up with more ways to increase their short term profits which always comes with increased volatility. Here are the historic rate out of the FRB.

As the cost of labor has been increasing in China various products have shifted "assembly" etc. to other asian country's such as Taiwan, S. Korea, etc. at this point i'm pretty sure all of the have pegged their own currency;s against the USD, which essentially acts as a subsidy.

Very good write up my friend, im glad im not the only nerd here!

**Getbig2** · 02-06-2012, 03:37 PM

Originally Posted by basskiller

Has anyone taken into consideration what this may do to the sites that allow steroid selling sites as advertisers??

I was wondering the same thing!! I think I may have to just move to another country, cuz as the years go by the government just keeps gettinf worse and worse, more restrictions more stupid laws that just oppose the hard working man, and to try make decisions for him! whatever had to "Land of the free"? Every year our Bill of Rights get infringed upon more and more, and the government tries to make us believe its for our own good! Smh, im definently retiring elsewhere!

**awhites1** · 02-06-2012, 04:09 PM

Ok. sho nuff it was $500 million. i thought it was a typo. wall street journal reporting $500,000,000. DAYUM. i dont care if google has $40 billion. thats a lotta chedda

Con Artist Starred in Sting That Cost Google Millions - WSJ.com

**Mudge** · 02-06-2012, 09:27 PM

Proof positive, if you have cash, you walk.

**Idra** · 02-07-2012, 01:30 PM

holy shit thats fucked up, lol

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