A BRITISH ASIAN businessman and his former wife are fighting extradition to the US, where they are accused of defrauding American health programmes of millions of dollars by supplying cancer drugs that had not been approved by US regulators.
Sukhi Ghuman and Kiranjit Ghuman, both 48 and now living in the UK, appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London last week for an extradition hearing. The pair, who have divorced since the charges were brought, deny the allegations.
They are also wanted in the US to stand trial on separate drug smuggling charges.
According to court reports, the District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego issued a warrant for their arrest in October 2023.
Peter Caldwell KC, representing the US government, told the court that an investigation covering September 2019 to April 2023 alleged the pair had fraudulently obtained millions of dollars from Medicare and other health insurance plans.
Prosecutors claim the Ghumans obtained cheap, unapproved chemotherapy and other drugs from overseas and used them on cancer patients at oncology clinics they controlled in California and Arizona. Investigators also said some of the medicine was out of date.
The extradition request also refers to a separate alleged scheme in which one of their clinics bought drugs approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from American wholesalers and resold them without a proper licence.
The court heard that the alleged offences took place while the pair were living in the US. The drug smuggling charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
Their defence teams are challenging the extradition on human rights grounds. A ruling is expected at a later date.
(With inputs from agencies)
