Incident 40242

A 12-count indictment was unsealed on January 23, 2020 in federal court in Brooklyn charging a pharmacist, with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone, distribution and possession of oxycodone, distribution of oxycodone by a pharmacist without legitimate prescription and filing false tax returns.

He was arrested January 23, 2020 by federal agents and arraigned before United States Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak. The defendant was released on a $1.5 million bond.

As set forth in the indictment and other court documents, the defendant owns and operates a pharmacy in Far Rockaway, Queens. Between March 2011 and June 2014, he allegedly conspired with others, including medical professionals and employees of a physician, to fill fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone and dispense thousands of oxycodone pills in return for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. The defendant then filed false corporate income tax returns for his pharmacy for the years 2013 through 2016, omitting the proceeds of his scheme, and false individual income tax returns for the years 2012 through 2016.

In total, he is charged with failing to report over $1 million in cash earnings, most of it generated from his oxycodone distribution scheme. More than a dozen physicians for whom the pharmacist filled prescriptions have since been convicted of crimes related to the distribution of oxycodone.

“It is a misconception that pharmacists can hide their role in illegal drug distribution by blindly following what doctors have prescribed for their patients,” said Special Agent in Charge Donovan. “By law, pharmacists must practice due diligence, and take their corresponding responsibility seriously. If diversion of prescriptions is suspected, and merely cast aside to make a quick dollar, the pharmacist is no better than a dealer on the street. Today’s arrest reemphasizes law enforcement’s commitment to identifying and arresting all of those responsible for furthering drug abuse and overdose deaths throughout our hometowns.”

“We can count the hundreds of thousands of dollars the defendant allegedly pocketed from the charged scheme, but the resulting human misery in our communities is incalculable,” said United States Attorney Donoghue. “This Office will continue working with federal and local law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute medical professionals who seek to profit from the opioid epidemic.”

“Income earned from the sale of prescription drugs is taxable regardless if those sales are legal or illegal,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Larsen. “The defendant allegedly failed to report the illegal income on his corporate tax returns in conjunction with concealing how the income was derived.”

If convicted of the drug charges, he faces up to 20 years’ imprisonment. If convicted of the tax charges, he faces up to three years’ imprisonment for each count. The charges in the indictment are allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.