YOUNGSTOWN — The owner of a South Side convenience store was sentenced Thursday to one year probation after pleading guilty to two counts of attempting to sell Viagra from the business.

Sukhvinder Multani, 54, of South Avenue in Youngstown, pleaded to the two misdemeanor counts after the offenses took place Aug. 9, 2023 and were discovered by agents from the Ohio Investigative Unit, said Steve Maszczak, county assistant prosecutor. Multani had no previous criminal record.

Multani had bottles of the drug on his shelves, but because it is a prescription drug, Multani was not allowed to sell it.

Multani was indicted on the felony version of the offense, but the charges were amended to misdemeanors in Multani’s plea, and a misdemeanor gambling charge was dismissed.

James Lanzo, Multani’s attorney, told Judge Anthony D’Apolito of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on Thursday that a “vendor for lack of a better term with letter head, company name, the whole deal and explained to (Multani) that this was perfectly lawful now, and (Multani) fell for it.”

Lanzo said Multani was “very upset that this occurred to him and that he was fooled by this guy who approached the store.”

The defense and prosecution were jointly recommending probation for Multani.

D’Apolito acknowledged that he did not think of Viagra as a dangerous drug because it is “lawfully prescribed,” so he said he can understand why Multani may not have realized it was dangerous as much as if someone approached him and asked him to sell cocaine.

Maszczak said that under Ohio law, “any drug that is a prescription drug is considered a dangerous drug.” He gave the example of ibuprofen, saying that would have been considered a dangerous drug before it became over-the-counter, even drugs that are nonaddictive.

Lanzo and Maszczak told the judge that Multani has operated his business for at least 20 years. Maszczak said Multani “has no prior history whatsoever.”

Staff photo / Ed Runyan
Sukhvinder Multani, 54, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor offenses for attempting to illegally sell the prescription drug Viagra out of his store, the South Avenue Gas Mart on South Avenue and was sentenced to one year of probation. At right is his attorney, James Lanzo.