The Food and Drug Administration announced on Aug 15, 2014 that Sabahaddin Akman, owner of the Istanbul, Turkey, firm Ozay Pharmaceuticals, has pleaded guilty to charges of importing misbranded and adulterated drugs indicated for cancer treatment into the United States.

The drug of concern was Altuzan, the Turkish version of the cancer chemotherapy Avastin, which had not been approved by the FDA for marketing in the United States.

Akman was arrested in Puerto Rico in January, 2014 after an investigation led by the FDA identified Akman and his company as a source of Altuzan.  Akman was trialed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he initially shipped his illegal cancer treatment drugs.

Akman, and his employee, Ozkan Semizoglu, "obtained the illicit drugs and then used shipping labels to conceal the illegal nature of the shipments, including customs declarations falsely describing the contents as gifts. They also broke large drug shipments into several smaller packages to reduce the likelihood of seizures by U.S. Customs and Border Protection authorities," the FDA says. (David Liu)

(The report may contain content from the FDA press release)