Sep. 11, 2014
Kirstin M. Ault
See more on Kirstin M. AultU.S. Attorney | Northern District of California | San Francisco | Specialty: criminal
"This just sort of landed on my plate," Ault said. "I think a lot of times when you get something that's big and messy like this a lot of people think it's too complicated. If I can do the case, I do the case."
Ault, who began as an assistant U.S. attorney in 2004, led the indictment of 11 individuals involved in the pharmacies, prevailing in two separate trials in 2012. While prosecuting executives, web developers and doctors who worked in the pharmacies, Ault and FBI agents simultaneously investigated the roles of major delivery companies in facilitating the sales.
In 2013, she negotiated a $40 million settlement with United Parcel Service Inc. for accusations the company knowingly supplied drugs illegally. Early this summer, the grand jury announced the office's biggest case in this area to date, indicting Fortune 500 company FedEx Corp., and seeking $880 million in forfeiture for allegedly facilitating illicit drug distribution.
Ault said the DEA investigation was spurred by lots of calls from families of addicts, particularly minors and the elderly, who were getting drugs from these online shops.
"I always look at this as one of the examples where somebody called up the government and said somebody should do something about this and we actually did," Ault said.
Ault feels the work prosecuting unlawful online pharmacies can have a big effect on illicit drug distribution.
"A lot of what I was doing-heroin cases and other drug cases-a lot of times you just feel like you can put 20 people in prison and 20 more come in and do the same thing," Ault said. "This to me feels like you could have more of an impact."
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