• Home
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Awards
  • Privacy Policy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS
TheDomains.com

WSJ: Google Warned On Selling Ads To Rogue Drug Sites & Feds Looking At Whether Company Should Be Charged Criminally

May 21, 2011 by Michael Berkens

According to The Wall Street Journal, Regulators and industry watchdog groups repeatedly warned Google that it was taking ads from rogue online pharmacies in violation of federal law.

Last week Google took a $500 million charge in its recent quarter to cover potential charges related to resolving an investigation by the Department of Justice.

CNET is reporting at the same time Google was being praised by the White House for cracking down on illegal Internet pharmacies the Justice Department was investigating the company for selling ads to the illegal Internet pharmacies.

The Wall Street Journal is also reporting that federal prosecutors are investigating whether Google employees “knowingly accepted business from illegal drug sellers.” which would open the company up to criminal charges of aiding illegal online activities.

The Journal is also  reporting that the FDA conducted a sting operation on Google, posing as “representatives from rogue Internet pharmacies.”

According to the Journal, Google had been warned as early as 2003 that illegal online pharmacies were using its advertising system to place ads on Web pages and in 2009, a California Western School of Law professor published a report, finding that Google and others were profiting from illicit online pharmacy ads. “On the basis of our analysis, I think they were turning a blind eye,” the professor, Bryan Liang, told the Journal.

It was also in 2009 that the U.S. Attorney in Rhode Island subpoenaed the third-party pharmacy verification service, PharmacyChecker.com, the company’s vice president, Gabriel Levitt, told CNET. He confirmed that regulators were asking questions about Google’s selling ads to illegal Internet pharmacies.

In December 2010, company executives of Google were at the White House, with executives from Microsoft, Yahoo, Go Daddy, to announce the creation of a nonprofit organization to facilitate sharing information about illegitimate online pharmacies in order to shut them down.

Google is now working to settle the case with the Justice Department.

Filed Under: Publicly Traded Domain Co

About Michael Berkens

Michael Berkens, Esq. is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of TheDomains.com. Michael is also the co-founder of Worldwide Media Inc. which sold around 70K domain to Godaddy.com in December 2015 and now owns around 8K domain names . Michael was also one of the 5 Judges selected for the the Verisign 30th Anniversary .Com contest.

« Physical.com Sells On Sedo.com For $42,500 As Eric Borgos Goes on A Shopping Spree
Get Your Popcorn Ready: The Navy Enters The TM Race Again This Time For “Navy Seals” »

Comments

  1. John Berryhill says

    May 23, 2011 at 12:20 pm

    There was a fascinating article the other day about a report which concluded that payment processing for most illicit pharma purchases go through three – count ’em three – payment processors.

    It’s funny how nobody wants to touch the banks on this stuff, when the money trail is a cleaner choke point.


Recent Articles

  • MariaSharapova.com expires and closes over $22K at GoDaddy auctions
  • Sedo weekly domain name sales led by JPR.com
  • NameJet/SnapNames April 2022 Sales Report

Recent Comments

  • Brad on Quite possibly the ugliest name to sell for three figures ever?
  • John on Q1 2022 Liquid Domains Report sees a sharp drop in median prices
  • JayDee on What do you have for $2K or less? list up to 3 names for sale
  • Robert McLean on Q1 2022 Liquid Domains Report sees a sharp drop in median prices
  • Hafiz Khan on Visionary.vc surpasses Solar.vc to be highest reported .vc domain name sale

Polls

How Many .Web Domains Will Be Registered 1 Year After Launch

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Categories

Archives

domain name news

Copyright ©2019 TheDomains.com — Published by Worldwide Media, Inc. — Site by Nuts and Bolts Media