Google warned repeatedly about online drug ads

Those alleged transgressions likely led to the $500 million charge Google took in its recent quarter to cover potential charges related to resolving an investigation by the Department of Justice. CNET reported yesterday that Google was being praised by the White House for cracking down on illegal Internet pharmacies together the Justice Department was investigating the company.

The Journal reported that federal prosecutors are investigating whether Google employees "knowingly accepted business from illegal drug sellers." That would open the company up to criminal charges of aiding illegal online activities.

What's more, the Journal reported that the Food and Drug Administration conducted a sting operation on Google, posing as "representatives from rogue Internet pharmacies." It's unclear if those inquiries led to any evidence that regulators can use against Google.

The Journal

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. That year, the associate executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy wrote to Google, saying she was "deeply concerned that these rogue Internet sites could be a front for criminals seeking to introduce adulterated medications, counterfeit drugs, or worse, to the American market," according to the Journal.

Five years later, the director of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, Joseph Califano, a former U.S. health secretary, wrote to at the time-Google CEO Eric Schmidt that the organization found "prominent displays of ads for rogue Internet pharmacies" when it used Google to search for controlled drugs, according to the Journal. "This suggests that Google is profiting from advertisements for illegal sales of controlled prescription drugs online."

It was as well 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.

Jay Greene, a CNET senior writer, works from Seattle and covers Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. He's the author of the book, Design Is How It Works: How the Smartest Companies Turn Products into Icons. He started writing about Microsoft and innovation in 1998, first as a reporter for The Seattle Times and later as BusinessWeek's Seattle bureau chief.

loricnet: Installed Firefox mobile on my phone. Right away slowed to a crawl. Back to opera. Sigh. I actually used to love you FF.

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