Doctors Have Been Prosecuted for Endangering Their Patients With Black Market Medicine
Between 2012 and 2017, the FDA warned more than 3,000 medical practices to stop buying medicines from unlicensed foreign wholesalers who had been caught selling counterfeit drugs. Patients who encounter these drugs go under-treated and untreated, which can be catastrophic; at worst, they may be poisoned.
Buying non-FDA approved drugs can be catastrophic for medical practices, too. Since 2005 and mid-2018, 59 doctors were prosecuted for crimes related to purchasing non-FDA approved medications, treating patients with illegally imported drugs, and/or fraudulently billing Medicare and private insurance as if they had purchased these drugs legally and at full price. 57 of those prosecuted were fined a combined total of $37.5 million. 16 received prison sentences.
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On November 22, 2022, San Francisco doctor Lindsay Clark pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for receiving non-FDA approved drugs and devices. She injected her patients with these black market drugs, and she made a million dollars doing it.
Between 2007 and 2018 Foreign Wholesalers Sold American Doctors Unreliable Black Market Cancer Drugs
From 2007 to 2018 American physicians and clinics demonstrated that drug importation is not safe and is extremely difficult to make safe. Doctors thought they were saving money. Instead they purchased illegally imported, expired, damaged and outright counterfeit medications—including cancer treatments—from black market wholesalers posing as licensed distributors in Canada and other countries.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Florida doctor Johnny C. Benjamin, Jr. received a life sentence after being convicted on five counts by a jury in April. Benjamin manufactured counterfeit pain pills, one of which killed Maggie Crowley…
A doctor in Oregon, Brenda Roberts, pleaded guilty in federal court to purchasing non FDA-approved anti-wrinkle cosmetic injectables and using them on her clients. An affidavit in the case also states that she operated a rogue online pharmacy that distributed controlled substances to customers throughout the United States…
A federal jury found Dr. Johnny C. Benjamin of Vero Beach guilty on five of the seven charges against him, including manufacturing counterfeit pills with fentanyl that caused the death of a young woman in Wellington, Florida…
The two confidential informants in the case against a Vero Beach doctor who was manufacturing counterfeit oxycodone pills have been named and charged in court. Kevan Slater and Zachary Stewart each face multiple counts in recently released superseding indictment…
NY Oncologist Vincent Koh and his office manager wife Mimi agree to pay $500,000 administering illegally purchased and misbranded drugs on their Medicare cancer patients…
U.S. Department of Justice announced an indictment against Dr. Johnny C. Benjamin, Jr. of Vero Beach, Florida. He is alleged to have manufactured and sold counterfeit pills made with fentanyl that he purchased online. Authorities know of at least one death attributed to the pills he made…
After receiving a tip in November 2017, police search the home that Diane D’Anca was operating an illegal med spa out of. Inside, police found a “large amount” of medical supplies and records for 100 clients. In a refrigerator in the garage, they found several vials of Botox she injected into clients that turned out to be counterfeit…
Washington state naturopathy Rick Marschall was convicted in 2011 for illegally prescribing misbranded drugs to his patients. Sentenced to probation, he kept prescribing causing the state to suspend his license in 2013. He continued to practice medicine without a license and just received a jail sentence for prescribing the same misbranded drugs to his patients…