Two owners of a pharmaceutical wholesale company were sentenced on Mar. 16 to a combined 38 years in prison for running a nationwide drug diversion scheme that distributed more than $92 million worth of black-market HIV medications, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The case highlights the risks posed by illegal drug distribution schemes, which can endanger vulnerable patients and undermine trust in the prescription drug supply chain. The defendants’ actions resulted in contaminated or incorrect medications reaching HIV-positive patients, with at least one patient losing consciousness after ingesting the wrong drug.
Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva said, “Patrick and Charles Boyd did not just commit fraud and cost taxpayers millions of dollars, they preyed upon some of the most vulnerable members of our society: HIV patients who depend on life-saving treatments to manage their disease.” Duva added, “Fraud schemes like this one undermine the integrity of our supply chain for necessary prescription drugs. These defendants will rightly spend years in prison for their reprehensible conduct, which took advantage of people for illicit profit.”
U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said, “These defendants treated life-saving HIV medication like street contraband. They bought drugs off the street from black-market suppliers, shipped them in dirty boxes and discarded packaging, falsified paperwork, and pushed those medications back into the legitimate pharmaceutical supply chain.” Quiñones continued, “When criminals gamble with patient safety for profit, federal prison is the result.”
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, brothers Patrick Boyd and Charles Boyd owned Safe Chain Solutions in Maryland. They conspired with at least five black-market suppliers to purchase discounted HIV drugs obtained through patient buyback schemes. Pharmacies reported receiving bottles containing different drugs as early as August 2020; one patient received Seroquel instead of his prescribed medication and lost consciousness for 24 hours.
Acting Deputy Inspector General Scott J. Lampert said Friday’s sentence “underscores the extreme danger these defendants created,” adding that “their criminal scheme endangered vulnerable patients, put entire communities at risk, and undermined the integrity of Medicare and Medicaid.” Lampert stated that HHS-OIG would continue working with law enforcement partners “to pursue and dismantle illegal black‑market rings that seek to corrupt the nation’s drug supply and exploit taxpayer‑funded health care programs.”
Between April 2020 and September 2021, Patrick and Charles Boyd bought over 28,000 bottles of diverted HIV drugs for more than $92.8 million before reselling them to pharmacies across the country. In October 2025 they were convicted on multiple counts including conspiracy to introduce misbranded drugs into interstate commerce; Patrick Boyd was sentenced to 18 years in prison while Charles Boyd received a 20-year sentence along with an order to pay $21.85 million in forfeiture.
A third defendant pleaded guilty earlier and was sentenced to over eight years in prison for his role in the scheme.
The Fraud Section leads efforts against health care fraud through its Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program which has charged more than 6,200 defendants since March 2007.
