CAMBRIDGE, Md. - Owners of a Cambridge-based pharmaceutical wholesaler have been sentenced to a total of 38 years behind bars for selling black-market HIV drugs to pharmacies across the country.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Patrick Boyd and Charles Boyd, owners of Safe Chain Solutions, were sentenced on Friday, March 13 for their roles in a nationwide operation involving more than $92 million in illegally obtained HIV medications. The two had previously been convicted in October of 2025.
Prosecutors say the brothers bought prescription drugs through illegal “buyback” channels, in some cases obtaining medications directly from patients. Those drugs were then repackaged, relabeled, and sold back into the legitimate supply chain, using falsified records to make them appear safe and properly sourced.
“Patrick and Charles Boyd did not just commit fraud and cost taxpayers millions of dollars, they preyed upon some of the most vulnerable members of our society: HIV patients who depend on life-saving treatments to manage their disease,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Fraud schemes like this one undermine the integrity of our supply chain for necessary prescription drugs. These defendants will rightly spend years in prison for their reprehensible conduct, which took advantage of people for illicit profit. This case is another example of how the Criminal Division, our United States Attorney partner in the Southern District of Florida, and law enforcement will pursue and seek convictions of those who defraud our systems, endanger our citizens, and seek to line their pockets with fraud proceeds.”
Prosecutors say the medications were often mishandled, stored improperly, or tampered with. In some cases, bottles contained entirely different drugs than what the label indicated.
Federal officials say at least one patient lost consciousness after taking the wrong medication.
Charles Boyd was sentenced to 20 years in prison while Patrick Boyd was sentenced to 18, reflecting what officials described as the life-threatening nature of the operation. They were also ordered to pay nearly $22 million in forfeiture.