FedEx said it received subpoenas from a federal grand jury in San Francisco in 2008 and 2009. The San Francisco U.S. Attorney’s office has played a central role in a nationwide crackdown on online pharmacies. Ten people with ties to online pharmacies have been convicted over the last two years.
“It is unclear what federal laws UPS may have violated,” FedEx said in statement Friday. “We remain confident that we are in compliance with federal law.”
The DOJ said some UPS employees knew the company was making deliveries between 2003 and 2010 for pharmacies that filled orders for dangerous drugs without proper prescriptions from doctors.
“Despite being on notice that this activity was occurring, UPS did not implement procedures to close the shipping accounts of Internet,” the DOJ said in a prepared statement.