MIAMI – March 16, 2026 – Two Maryland brothers who owned and operated a pharmaceutical wholesale company were each sentenced to lengthy prison terms on Friday for orchestrating a sprawling $92 million black-market scheme that distributed tainted and mislabeled HIV medication to unsuspecting pharmacies and patients across the United States.

Patrick Boyd, 47, and Charles Boyd, 43, of Easton, Maryland, were handed down sentences of 18 and 20 years, respectively, for their roles in the conspiracy, which prosecutors say endangered some of the most vulnerable patients and corrupted the nation’s prescription drug supply chain.

The brothers, who founded and ran Safe Chain Solutions, were convicted in October 2025 on multiple federal charges, including conspiracy to traffic in medical products with false documentation and wire fraud. According to court documents and trial testimony, the scheme ran from April 2020 to September 2021 and involved the purchase and resale of more than 28,000 bottles of HIV medication acquired from black-market suppliers.

Prosecutors detailed a disturbing pipeline for the drugs, which were often obtained directly from HIV patients in so-called “buyback schemes.” One supplier testified that he would purchase the medication from patients on the street, remove the original prescription labels, and repackage the bottles in whatever boxes he could find—including, on one occasion, a discarded diaper box. The bottles themselves were often dirty, unsealed, and showed clear signs of prior use.

The tainted medication was then sold to pharmacies across the country, complete with falsified paperwork designed to evade detection by regulators and customers. The danger to patients was immediate and severe.