Pharmaceutical company distances self from employee charged in the US for supplying fake HIV testing kits

Feb 20, 2023 News

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Kaieteur News – Caribbean Medical Supplies Inc. (CSMI) has announced that Davendra Rampersaud, who was arrested last month in the United States of America for supplying fake HIV testing kits, money laundering and other charges – has been removed from the day-to-day management of the company.

Rampersaud was May last year freed on charges of supplying fake HIV testing kits to Guyana’s Ministry of Health (MOH). However, on January 19 last, he was arrested in the United States based on a warrant issued in relation to similar charges.

In a notice published in Kaieteur News February 19 edition, the company stated, “On 25 January, 2023, Davendra Rampersaud was removed from the day-to-day management of CMSI. This was done to allow the legal process against him to take its course and for CMSI to continue its operations as a separate legal entity delivering pharmaceutical and healthcare products across Guyana and the Caribbean as a valued and dependable partner to many entities.”

Rampersaud along with others, have since been slapped with a number of charges after his arrest in Florida and the matter has since been transferred to another District, South Carolina. He was released on bail on Monday. According to US Court documents seen by this publication, Rampersaud along with his unnamed accomplices allegedly engaged in money laundering, aiding and abetting a crime, theft from the US Government, conspiracy, stealing or converting/unauthorised selling/unlawful receipt and theft in relation to health care supplies.

This publication reported, according to the records, Rampersaud during one of his initial appearances had waived his rights to an identity hearing or a preliminary hearing in addition to other legal procedures which was granted by US Judge Jacqueline Becerra.

In the superseding indictment against Rampersaud, the US prosecutors outlined that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID,) is a US federal agency that provides economic development and humanitarian assistance around the world with missions in 80 countries and programmes in 100 countries including Kenya. As such, it was further outlined that USAID is part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR) as part of the country’s response.

Among the beneficiaries of that PEPFAR programme is Kenya, and is organised under the Kenyan Medical Supplies Authority (KEMSA) that falls under that country’s Ministry of Health and is provided monthly with vouchers for the operations, including for the supply of HIV testing kits and other supplies.

The unnamed manufacturer, according to the court documents seen, authorises specific companies as distributors of its products in order to protect their integrity.
In Guyana, the provision of the HIV testing kits had been supplied by an authorised dealer for the Caribbean, a practice that had been in place for several years. According to the court documents seen by this publication, CMS headed by Rampersaud is not an authorised supplier of the manufacturers’ products and as such, was and is not permitted to provide the company’s products to the Guyana Government’s Ministry of Health. To this end, the documents allege that CMS, Rampersaud and others, knowingly conspired to, and agreed to commit a number of offences against the US Government.

These include knowingly stealing and converting to their things of value from the US Government, namely the supplies provided under the USAID programs to their own use and gains. Additionally, the alleged perpetrators, knowingly sold the items without authority as well as willfully stealing and converting to their own use things of value of the US Govt. It was noted that KEMSA through the US authorities had received in 2014 HIV testing kits among other healthcare supplies which was then found to be diverted to other destinations including in Guyana, which Rampersaud with others supplied to the Guyana Government. It was noted that between November 2015 and December 2019, Rampersaud and CMS made payments to the other alleged conspirators and that the payment was for “medical commodities which had been diverted from Kenya and other countries to Guyana.

The court documents reiterated that some of the products had been funded by USAID with the money being transferred to Kenya from the US. In June 2015, CMS through Rampersaud solicited HIV testing kits from the manufacturer indicating that the incumbent supplier for the Caribbean at the time was “no good” and that he was looking to secure some 30,000 such kits. The following month, Rampersaud reportedly provided the manufacturer with a fraudulent letter of authority for CMS to operate as the distributor for the Caribbean.

By November 2015, under the stewardship of then Health Minister Volda Lawrence, CMS was awarded a sole source contract for the supply of the testing kits from the manufacturer. It has since been found that between that time and 2020, Rampersaud through CMS had been wiring monies to his alleged conspirators, as payment for the HIV testing kits, a number of which was diverted from Kenya that had already been paid for by USAID.

The court documents noted that in 2016, Rampersaud was informed that he was not authorised to sell the manufacturers products. The matter was raised again in March the following year, when the manufacturer wrote to Rampersaud’s partners, indicating that the actions involving Rampersaud were unlawful. This however did not prevent Rampersaud or his partners from persisting with the unlawful practice, the court papers read.

In January 2020, it was discovered that 400 HIV rapid testing kits for Kenya had been diverted to Guyana and supplied to the Ministry of Health. In Guyana, Rampersaud had denied charges which alleged that on January 16, 2020, Caribbean Medical Supplies Inc. allegedly sold and supplied 400 units (20 packs) of Uni-gold HIV Test Kits, Batch #HIV7120026, with misleading representation, a violation of the Food and Drugs Act of 1971. According to reports, a quantity of the testing kits was seized by the GA-FDD from the Materials Management Unit of the Ministry of Public Health, at Diamond, East Bank Demerara, and from local hospitals and laboratories. The probe was launched into the fake HIV testing kits after an Irish manufacturer last January wrote to the former Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, warning that it is aware that there are counterfeit Uni-Gold HIV test kits in Guyana.

The Irish company supplied photographic evidence, which indicated clearly that the kits expired in July the previous year. The company, Trinity Biotech, in its complaint, named CMS. According to the manufacturer, the fake boxes were created with expiry dates extended by 17 months and the kits repacked in them. The Irish pharmaceutical company said that the products were already six months out of date when it was brought to Guyana. Trinity Biotech also claimed that its Trinidad-based authorized distributor, Transcontinental Medical Products Limited, is the only authorized distributor for the Uni-Gold kits to Guyana and it had not participated in the transaction.

In fact, Trinity called on Lawrence to remove the expired kits from testing centres immediately as they posed health risks to patients.

In May last year, Magistrate Zameena Ali-Seepaul freed Rampersaud, after he had been charged with supplying the Ministry of Health with expired HIV test kits. The case against Rampersaud was dismissed as the court upheld a no-case submission, agreeing that the prosecution failed to prove essential elements of the offence. The defence also contended that the prosecution failed to obtain sufficient evidence to show that Rampersaud imported the test kits and they also failed to establish that the court had jurisdiction to hear the matter.

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• fake, HIV testing kits, money laundering, Pharmaceutical

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