Washington: Indian businessman Jeetendra Harish Belani, aka ‘Jeetu’ has been charged in the US for conspiring to smuggle drugs into the country and committing money laundering, an American attorney said Thursday.
Belani from Mumbai has been charged with an eight count indictment and he faces a maximum sentence of not more than twenty years in prison and a fine of not more than USD one million or both.
According to US Attorney Scott W Brady, Belani, 36, is charged for trying to import Schedule II and Schedule IV controlled substances, conspiracy to smuggle drugs into the United States, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and various substantive counts of drug importation, smuggling, and money laundering.
According to the Indictment, Belani operated a drug-distribution entity based in India called ‘LeeHPL Ventures’.
Between 2015 and 2019, Belani and his co-conspirators, through LeeHPL Ventures, allegedly imported and smuggled into the United States various drugs available only by prescription in the United States, including Tapentadol, a Schedule II controlled substance, as well as Tramadol, Carisoprodol, and Modafinil, all Schedule IV controlled substances.
The Indictment also alleges that between 2015 and mid-2017, Belani conspired with William Kulakevich and Julia Fees to unlawfully smuggle a drug known as ‘Etizolam’ — often used to treat insomnia and anxiety and carry a potential for abuse and overdose — into the United States for re-sale by Kulakevich and Fees via a website they operated—www.etizy.com.
To evade detection by the US Customs and Border Protection officials, Belani and his co-conspirators also allegedly used false customs declarations that mischaracterized and undervalued the contents of packages sent to the United States by LeeHPL Ventures.
According to the Indictment, Belani had drug shipments broken into smaller quantities and sent to multiple addresses to help ensure delivery and avoid interception by United States customs authorities.
The US Department of Justice also said that Belani caused co-conspirators to initiate payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars from accounts in the United States to accounts controlled by Belani in India or other locations outside the United States — all as a means to promote Belani’s continued efforts to smuggle drugs into the United States.
PTI