Informant gets a break in drug case

Greg Tuttle

Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2000 | 10:16 a.m.

A California man who helped federal investigators unravel a lucrative scheme involving a Fortune 500 company in Indiana and the reselling of prescription drugs in Las Vegas will spend seven months in a halfway house.

Fred Evans, 63, avoided a longer prison sentence by feeding federal investigators information while working as an informant for nine months on a case that could result in a $25.8 million settlement against Bindley Western Industries Inc., the nation's fifth largest wholesale drug distributor.

A federal grand jury in Las Vegas indicted Evans last year on charges of conspiracy and wire fraud in connection with a drug-diversion scheme. The scheme centered on the reduced price offered by drug manufacturers to companies that sell prescription drugs directly to medical facilities.

U.S. District Judge Kent Dawson sentenced Evans Monday.

Evans operated a Los Angeles-based company known as Drug World Pharmacy, which purported to sell prescription drugs to nursing homes and other long-term care providers. A co-conspirator, Irving J. Levin, operated a similar institutional pharmacy, V.N. Chicago Pharmaceutical Inc., which bought drugs from Drug World Pharmacy and then routed them back to the wholesale market at a substantial profit, according to court records.

The conspiracy netted Evans and Levin $829,513 between 1995 and 1996, according to prosecutors. The men were ordered to pay back the money as part of a plea agreement, and Evans also paid a $1.6 million fine. Levin paid $500,000 in fines and was sentenced last month to six months' home detention.

Evans also pleaded guilty and was sentenced Monday on a charge of attempted obstruction of justice. Prosecutors said Evans tried to misuse money from the undercover operation, but immediately returned the money.