Pakistan sentenced to 6 years for peddling fake cures

CONCORD, N.H. – A dual citizen from Pakistan and the United Kingdom has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for selling drugs that he falsely claimed would cure illnesses ranging from Alzheimer’s disease and emphysema.

Through over 1,500 websites, thirty-seven-year-old Mustafa Hasan Arif generated more than $12.8 million in fraudulent sales to more than 100,000 victims globally. The websites claimed that his drugs would cure and treat hundreds of diseases, many of which were incurable, and included falsified cure rates, false clinical research, and fabricated testimonials, according to court documents and court records.

After he was sentenced Tuesday, acting United States Attorney John J. Farley called Arif’s conduct “reprehensible” and accused him of preying on “vulnerable individuals who were seeking to find cures for illnesses that often had no known cure.”