Akhil and Sanjeev Srivastav, a doctor friend who lived in New York. A dejected Akhil called Srivastav from India after Akhil's family blamed him for his father's heart attack.
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DrugNet, Chapter 7: Betrayal
Akhil loses his family's trust, his father loses his health, and the business loses security. Agents prepare to move.
"Fine," Akhil said. "I don't even think of the money."
Akhil returned to his room. He closed the door, switched off the lights, and began to cry.
CHINATOWN
Even now, a year into the case, the numbers astounded DEA investigator Carlos Aquino.
It wasn't just the money. It was the volume. At the end of each week, Carlos totaled the spreadsheets DEA had intercepted and calculated the Bansal inventory.
He looked at one week's tally in early March:
Generic pills sold online: codeine, 54,590; Valium, 73,130; sleeping, 83,380; antianxiety, 104,270.
Pills in stock: sleeping, 424,820; antianxiety, 452,953; pain, 1.1 million.
Who needed a million tabs of codeine?
Carlos shook his head. Akhil had a medical degree. Yet here he was, running a multimillion-dollar pill network from a dumpy apartment in Roxborough, storing pills in a garage in Queens, shipping 75,000 pills a day. No prescription required, no directions included. What was he thinking?
One other set of figures grabbed Carlos' attention: Akhil's stock on hand exceeded the highest category on a chart that judges used to calculate prison sentences. The numbers were literally off the chart.
Carlos shared this nugget with partner Eric Russ: "The dude has maxed out."
AGRA
Akhil paced his childhood bedroom and called his friend Sanjeev Srivastav, a doctor back in New York.
"Sir, they say I'm killing my father."
He called Srivastav "Sir," a term of affection dating to their days in medical college. Srivastav had helped Akhil out of a couple of jams in India. Once, he defended him in a feud with the dean's son. Another time, Srivastav gave Akhil $30,000 to cover a margin call in the gold market. Akhil owed him.
So in 2004, when Srivastav moved to New York, Akhil let him live in the Queens home they used as a drug depot. Akhil also bought him a $50,000 SUV. In his spare time, Srivastav helped Akhil sell kilos of the tranquilizer ketamine.
Now Srivastav gave Akhil calming advice. Akhil hung up and worked until dawn.
After breakfast, Akhil carried a stack of spreadsheets and bank records to his father's bedside.
"There are the total assets," Akhil said. "These are the accounts. These are the passwords. Here are powers of attorneys for all the accounts. Here are signed blank checks."
