A Georgia couple guilty of importing and distributing counterfeit male enhancement products, among other goods, have been sentenced to 18 months in prison, officials announced Wednesday.
Irfanali Momin, 48, and Shiba Momin, 42, of Dahlonega, pleaded guilty in September to charges of conspiring to illegally import misbranded drugs, receiving misbranded drugs that had moved in interstate commerce, trafficking counterfeit goods and naturalization fraud, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. The arrest of the married couple “essentially stopped the flow of illegal products throughout the Southeast,” law enforcement officials said after their plea.
The Momins were each sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Their U.S. citizenship was also revoked, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.
“The Momins lived a life of lies in this country from their fraudulent citizenship to their business of selling illegal products to customers whose health was threatened by the use of those products,” Special Agent Chris Hacker of FBI Atlanta said. “Now they will pay for their deception in prison time and loss of their citizenship.”
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, between 2014 and 2018, the Momins imported and sold male enhancement products from China that contained the active ingredients found in both Viagra and Cialis, sildenafil and tadalafil, respectively. Those pharmaceutical ingredients are only available in the U.S. with a prescription. The pills were marketed under a wide variety of names such as Black Ant King, Bull, Rhino 7, Jack Rabbit, Pro Power Max and more, the AJC reported.
“The Momins had, in fact, received more than a dozen notices from the FDA advising them to not sell these products,” Acting U.S. Attorney Kurt Erskine said in the announcement. Those notices helped the U.S Attorney’s Office build a case that showed the couple were aware the products they were importing could be harmful.
To avoid import restrictions, the Momins’ suppliers mislabeled boxes containing the illegal pills. The Momins admitted to selling between $550,00 and $1.5 million in illegal pharmaceutical products over the course of the conspiracy. They also sold a variety of other counterfeit goods from their warehouse in Dalton, including fake watches, headphones and rolling papers.
The investigation into the illegal import activities also led to the discovery that they committed naturalization fraud by providing inaccurate information in the process of becoming U.S. citizens. Irfanali Momin falsely claimed that he had never been married before when he had actually been married to two women at the same time. Shiba Momin applied for U.S. citizenship under a false name, the AJC reported.
“The defendants built their business and earned their citizenship through fraud,” Erskine said. “And, by illegally importing and distributing products containing drugs that can only be obtained in the United States with a prescription written by a licensed medical professional, the Momins put profit over public safety.”
