Man
charged with selling illegal forms of growth hormone.
Paul Gustafson,
Star Tribune / March 27, 2004
A St. Paul
man alleged to have sold an illegally obtained human growth
hormone and a homemade version of it to body builders was indicted
Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Iowa.
Basil Han,
29, is accused of buying the human growth hormone hGH from two
Iowa men who obtained it illegally from China, according to
court documents.
When the Iowa men lost their Chinese sources of hGH, one told
authorities, they created their own version, placed it in false
packaging and sold much of it to Han for resale.
When Han
was arrested March 18 in Iowa, he was in the process of buying
the men's counterfeit hGH business and moving supplies and equipment
for making the hormone to St. Paul, authorities allege.
By then,
however, one of the Iowa men already was cooperating with federal
authorities. As a result, federal agents tape-recorded Han on
March 14 as he agreed to buy the men's business for $15,000.
Later that day, the agents watched Han as he allegedly moved
equipment for the illegal drug business into an apartment in
the 1100 block of Ashland Av. in St. Paul, according to a search
warrant filed Friday. Han was indicted on one count of possessing
human growth hormone with intent to distribute it for unauthorized
purposes and on one count of conspiracy.
His scheduled
hearing Friday in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
was postponed. His attorney, John Lane, of Cedar Rapids, could
not be reached for comment.
A man identified
as B.J. Stevens told federal authorities that he and Nick Hanson
of Mason City, Iowa, schemed to import hGH illegally from China
beginning in 2000, according to court documents.
They did
so by using Web sites to pose as representatives of legitimate
biotechnology companies that needed hGH for neuromuscular research.
The hGH then was fraudulently repackaged as an approved human
growth hormone product called Serostim and sold to body builders
and others, the indictment alleges.
The Federal
Drug Administration has not approved any foreign-manufactured
hGH for use in the United States. But Serostim, a recombinant
hGH product produced by Serono Inc., of Massachusetts, has been
approved to prevent AIDS wasting.
However, the drug, which helps develop muscle mass, has become
widely available on the black market because, unlike other steroids,
it isn't detected in drug testing used by sports groups.
A Serono
spokeswoman declined to comment on the scope of the drug's misuse,
but she said there have been similar cases.
When the
Iowa men lost their Chinese sources of hGH in September 2001,
they began making their own counterfeit version from ingredients
bought over the Internet, Stevens told authorities.
They also
sold a substance called Somaject, which they made themselves,
by making it appear to be a human growth hormone product made
by a legitimate German firm, according to the indictment against
Han.
Han allegedly
bought 2,500 kits of HGH from the Iowa men between May 2001
and December 2003, then sold it to others. Much of it was the
counterfeit substance the Iowa men made themselves, Stevens
told authorities.
Paul Gustafson
is at pgustafson@startribune.com
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
|
