Famous Chinese counterfeiter sentenced to 87 months in federal prison and a half million $ fine.

A 31-year-old man from China, who called himself, "Tom" has been sentenced to prison for trafficking a counterfit version of the weight-loss drug, Alli.

The man, Shengyang Zhou, of Kunming, Yunnan, China, was sentenced Thursday to serve 87 months in federal prison and to pay more than half a million dollars in restitution.

Zhou was arrested in March last year when he met with undercover agents in Hawaii to complete an agreement for a large order of the drug.

A grand jury in Denver indicted him the following month, and Zhou pled guilty on January 24 to trafficking and importing the counterfeit and unapproved drugs.

During the conversations with undercover agents, Zhou also identified himself as the manufacturer of the counterfeit Alli, and had promised to make the drug more effective.

The Federal Drug Administration issued various alerts from December 2008 through March 2009 warning consumers of the fake drugs.

According to their analysis, the drug that Zhou was producing and trafficking contained undeclared active ingredients including dangerous levels of Sibutramine.

Sibutramine can cause high blood pressure, seizures, tachycardia, palpitations, heart attack or strokes.

During sentencing, Zhou was also ordered to pay restitution totaling $504,815.39 to the victims of his fake drug, including an emergency room doctor from Texas who suffered a mild stroke from using the product.

Following his prison sentence Zhou will be deported to China.

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