Alli counterfeiter gets seven years in jail

Chinese national Shengyang (Tom) Zhou has been sentenced to 87 months in jail in the USA for his part in the trafficking of counterfeit medicines, namely fake versions of GlaxoSmithKline's weight-loss product Alli.

He was also ordered to pay more than $500,000 in restitution to the victims of the crime, including an emergency room doctor from Texas who suffered a mild stroke after taking the fake product.

Instead of the usual fat-binding compound orlistat, the fake Alli contained sibutramine which can cause side effects such as high-blood pressure, seizures, tachycardia, palpitations, heart attack or stroke in vulnerable people.

Zhou's business associate Qing Ming Hu, a naturalised US citizen, was also prosecuted, and received a sentence of 3 years' probation. He was involved in receiving shipments of the fake pharmaceutical and re-distributing the goods to US customers.