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.
Learn More About Doctors' Prosecutions
View larger map In an FDA report unsealed February 16th, Saint Louis, MO oncologist, Dr. Abid S. Nisar has pled guilty on charges of distributing and receiving misbranded and adulterated prescription drugs, including the cancer treatment drugs marketed in the United States as Neupogen®, Herceptin® and Rituxan®. Nisar purchased the counterfeit cancer from Ban Dune Marketing Inc (BDMI) of La Jolla, CA. he purchased the drugs in 47 different shipments from February through December 2010. BDMI has also been implicated in the first fake Avastin incident reported in the first week of February of 2012. Who: FDA Office of Inspections,…
A Toronto doctor pleaded guilty to felony charges of smuggling unapproved drugs into the US to treat American professional football and baseball players. Dr. Anthony Galea, 51, faces a maximum sentenced of three years in prison and $500,000 of fines and forfeitures, for providing unapproved medical treatments to professional athletes, including players in the National Football League and Major League Baseball. Galea, not licensed to practice in the US, admitted traveling to New York City, Miami, Washington, DC, and Boston among 13 locations, to administer treatments including mixtures of human growth hormone (HGH) and Actovegin, reports the FDA Office of…
A Utah Grand Jury returned 26 counts of mail and wire fraud against two Utah residents allegedly involved in a cosmetic surgery business operating without a supervising doctor and selling medications without prescriptions or medical oversight. Potentially sentenced to 30 years imprisonment and $1 million fine for each count of mail fraud, William Ricker Ferguson, age 52, and Ashlee Choate, age 21, are accused of running a Utah business known as Hollywood Body MD Cosmetic Surgery and Laser Center, reports the Department of Justice. Advertising as “Utah’s largest facility using the world’s most advanced, state-of-the-art, FDA approved advanced technology to…
Isabella Martire, MD, of Laurel, MD, an oncologist, pleaded guilty to introducing an unapproved drug to interstate commerce on August 8th, 2011, after purchasing nearly 200,000 doses of medication meant for distribution in Turkey, and not approved for use in the United States. In 2010, federal agents began investigating an English pharmaceutical wholesaler that was importing prescription drugs approved and labeled for use only outside the United States. Agents also found that Dr. Martire purchased nearly 200,000 of these drugs (not approved by the FDA for use in the US) in 2010. During a May 26, 2011 raid, agents found…
View larger map In an FDA report unsealed August 11, 2011, Maryland oncologist Dr. Isabella Martire has pled guilty on charges of introducing a misbranded drug into interstate commerce. Martire purchased cancer drugs not approved or verified by the FDA from a UK-based supplier and gave them to her patients. She then sought reimbursement from health insurers such as Medicare, Medicaid, and both private and federal health insurers. On May 26, 2011, federal agents served a search warrant at Dr. Martire’s office and found several boxes of misbranded drugs purchased from outside the United States. The packaging inserts and box…
On April 15, 2011, Kurt Walter Donsbach, 75, of San Diego, was sentenced to a year in county jail and probation of ten years after pleading guilty in December to 13 felony charges including unlawfully selling fake drugs to cancer patients, practicing medicine without a license and attempted grand theft.
Concluding an investigation begun in 2009, a Bonita man plead guilty today of 13 felony charges including unlawfully practicing medicine without a license and unlawfully selling or delivering misbranded drugs with intent to defraud or mislead.
Osteopath Kelly Dean Shrum was found guilty by a jury of one count of misdemeanor Misbranding in violation of the Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act and one count of Health Care Fraud. He was originally indicted on one count each of misbranding and health care fraud and three counts of money laundering for using imported IUDs in his practice, then billing the Arkansas Medicaid Program full price for the IUDs, and depositing proceeds from his work into his personal banking account. According to the Department of Justice, Shrum used the imported IUDs from January 2008 to June 2009, during which…
A Grand Forks, North Dakota doctor has pled guilty on federal charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. His counsel says that he client didn’t know he was breaking the law and even paid taxes on his earnings. Authorities say Enrique Rivera Mass, 56, illegally signed off on prescriptions for nearly 1.8 million pills that were sold online. While practicing psychiatry, Rivera Mass allegedly issued prescriptions mostly for weight loss drugs, primarily phentermine, but also sleep and anxiety medications, painkillers and the smoking cessation drugs without personally interviewing or reviewing the medical records of the patients. Court documents state…
A Utah doctor is being sent to jail for his connection to an illegal online pharmacy that sold more than eight million weight-loss pills manufactured in Mexico. Dr James A Brinton was sentenced to three years in a federal penitentiary after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute phentermine and conspiracy to commit international money laundering, according to the Desert News. The doctor was one of 18 people who were charged with crimes in connection to LighthouseMeds.com. The plea agreement says that the offenders sold the weight-loss pills over the internet to people who did not have a prescription and…