The U.S. government has imposed tough sanctions on a Vancouver-area businessman and his companies for allegedly buying and distributing chemicals and equipment used to produce illicit fentanyl and other synthetic drugs sold across North America.
The moves by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) target businessman Bahman Djebelibak, 41, of Port Coquitlam, B.C., who is publicly known as “Bobby Shah.”
Two Shah companies have also been hit: Valerian Labs Inc., and Valerian Labs Distribution Corp.
In a telephone interview with Global News, an emotional Shah denied all allegations. He is currently drafting a petition to appeal the sanctions.
“This literally came out of nowhere. It’s quite detrimental to me and my family life,” Shah said. “I vet all my customers. I don’t practise anything criminal. I have four kids to worry about.”
Shah said the U.S. government never contacted him to verify its information before announcing its sanctions. He said the U.S. government’s allegations include several errors of fact.
“They literally made it look like I’m in the drug trade. It’s going to ruin my life. It blackens me,” Shah added.
He described Valerian as initially being a vape juice manufacturer before it later began developing vitamin-based health beverages and other natural health products.
Valerian has now expanded into chemical production and has become what Shah described as “a chemical superstore.” It sells more than 200 different substances, all legal, with its facilities properly licensed and supervised by Canadian regulators.
The U.S. sanctions against the B.C. businessman and his companies are sweeping and severe.
They effectively cut off Shah and his companies from the entire U.S. financial system, meaning clients cannot buy anything from him, nor can he buy anything or do any business with vendors in the U.S., Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Wally Adeyemo said.
The sanctions also bar U.S. residents from dealing with any of Valerian’s digital money wallets and accounts in Bitcoin, and Ethereum and other digital currencies, the U.S. OFAC order states.
The measures imposed on Shah and his companies were part of a series of civil actions and criminal indictments that the Biden Administration launched Tuesday to counter what it described as a China-based syndicate of companies making fentanyl and other deadly narcotics.
U.S. Treasury officials said they’re taking direct aim at companies like Valerian that it suggested were in the illicit China-based syndicate’s clandestine supply chain as it moves to quell the fentanyl crisis that has killed thousands of Americans.
Adeyemo said steps taken were designed to send “a crystal-clear signal to those whose line of work involves trafficking a product that robs Americans of their lives; and that robs children from their parents and parents from their children all over our country.”
“If you benefit from the proceeds of this illicit activity, we are going to come after your assets,” Adeyemo said.
Shah said he is totally shocked. He said U.S. authorities have the wrong guy, saying he’s a straight-up legitimate businessman.
OFAC alleges instead that Shah is “a distributor of illicit precursor chemicals and equipment used to produce an array of synthetic drugs.” It adds that he’s done business with two China-based members of a drug syndicate, Jinhu Minsheng, and Hebei Guanlang.
The U.S. government said it has sanctioned Shah and his companies specifically “for having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.”
The U.S. alleges Valerian Labs, Inc. has received shipments of methylamine hydrochloride, which is a precursor chemical used to produce methamphetamine and MDMA. Valerian Labs Distribution Corp. attempted to procure 2,000 litres of chloroform, 800 litres of dichloromethane, and 200 kilograms of iodine, substances used in the production of fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine.
On LinkedIn, however, Valerian Labs Inc. describes itself as a small company with between two and 10 employees that makes colourful vitamin drinks. It is based in Port Coquitlam, B.C. The company states on its website that its current services include product development, formulation, co-packing, marketing, graphic design, and even trademark registration.
“We do it all,” the company trumpets on its website, valerianlabs.com.
Shah acknowledged he bought two or three fully automated bottling machines and a pill press from China-based equipment manufacturing companies that the U.S. have linked to the offshore narcotics syndicate. Shah said the latter machine is used to legally produce health products, with proper licences from Health Canada.
Despite his vehement denials of any current wrongdoing, Valerian owner Bobby Shah has been linked to several prior public controversies.
In 2018, Shah’s home was raided by the RCMP and targeted in a civil forfeiture lawsuit, alleging he had committed fraud and his family was living off the proceeds of crime.
Shah challenged the police search warrant and successfully overturned it in 2021, after a judge agreed the couple’s constitutional rights were violated and police methods included several mistakes, including unlawful aerial surveillance of the couple’s home without a warrant.
By January 2022, Shaw and his wife Ramina Shah, then 32 and a real estate agent, had estranged and split. She was stabbed to death in a violent murder in a Port Coquitlam parking structure. Her murder remains unresolved.