The owner of the pharmaceutical company, “CFO Pharma”, Nadir Çausholli, was sentenced a few days ago to 1 year in prison for “Market Manipulation”, after being found guilty of selling a medicine at a price many times higher than the market price. But the businessman will not serve the sentence in prison.
On April 29, 2025, the Court of Appeals, composed of judges Genti Dokollari, Marsela Pepi and Irena Brahimi, decided to suspend the prison sentence, forcing Nadir Çausholli to perform 80 hours of public work, as well as removing his right to be the administrator of his private company for 3 years.
CFO Pharma’s Drug Fraud
The investigation into Çausholli was launched by the Tirana Prosecutor’s Office in 2019, after reports on “Top Channel” television that the company “CFO Pharma” was selling the drug “Soludamine” for 1,357 new lekë, while the real value and the one approved by the National Medicines Agency was only 74 new lekë.
Pharmacist P.Q. stated that she was supplied by “CFO Pharma” with 10 boxes of 10 vials each with “Soludamine”, through an invoice dated March 4, 2019. She stated that, at the time of questioning by the prosecutor’s office, she had sold 5 boxes, at the price stated on the stamp, for 1,357 new lekë.
At the end of the procedural actions and after conducting the expert examinations, the prosecutor in the case, Albert Demirneli, accused him of “Market manipulation” and, in the end, requested the sentencing of Nadir Çausholli to 6 months in prison, which, due to the shortened trial, had to be converted to 4 months.
Nadir Çausholli’s arguments
After collecting preliminary information, the Tirana prosecution questioned Nadir Çausholli. Boldnews sources indicate that the owner of “CFO Pharma” admits that there is a problem with the price printed on the medicine stamps sold in pharmacies, but that “this is due to the mistakes of his employees.”
Çausholli stated that he initially imported the drug “Soludamine” in 2015, at a price of 1357 lekë and with an expiration date of November 2017. He then stated to the Prosecutor’s Office that the company imported “Soludamine” on March 5, 2018, with an expiration date of January 2021. For this batch, he was provided with a stamp with a price of 74 lekë by the Medicines and Medical Devices Control Agency (AKPMB).
Regarding the boxes found in the pharmacy, Çausholli states that “the stamps were affixed incorrectly by his company’s employees and that this is a human error and that the boxes with the drug “Soludamine” found in the pharmacy are from 2018, but the stamp placed on them is old with a price of 1357 lekë”.
He also stated that “there are about 1,000 boxes of the drug “Soludamin” with the wrong stamp, that the difference in price is about 940,000 lek and that in the warehouse they have about 900 1,000 boxes priced at 74 lek and no box of the drug priced at 1,357 lek”.
Suspicions of forgery
During the investigations, the Tirana Prosecution Office also conducted investigations for forgery of the stamps placed on the boxes of the drug “Soludamin”. A preliminary report by the National Medicines Agency had found irregularities and a lack of elements on the stamps that this institution issues for the drugs, where their price is also placed.
However, after the prosecution initially closed the investigations and the case was presented to the preliminary judge, the defense of the defendant Nadir Çausholli presented another report, with different data from the first one, drafted by several employees of the Medicines Agency, but without a date and stamp.
A Criminal Police expert, in charge of the verification, found that the stamps on the boxes of the drug “Soludamine” were generally similar to those used by the AKPMB, although some elements were missing. In conclusion, the prosecution assessed that the criminal offense of “forgery of stamps” had not been consumed, which was accepted by the preliminary judge.
The case went to trial for the criminal offense of “Market manipulation” and, in the end, the Tirana first instance court sentenced Nadir Çausholli to 1 year in prison, but Çausholli will serve the sentence with 80 hours of public work in community service.
