Indian-descent doctor convicted in $2.3 mn conspiracy to illegally distribute controlled drug

New York, April 17 (IANS) An Indian-descent doctor has been convicted of participating in a $2.3 million conspiracy to illegally distribute controlled substances and of healthcare fraud, according to the US Justice Department.

Neil Anand, 48, was also convicted of money laundering on Tuesday in a federal court in Pennsylvania, the department said on Wednesday.

In the conspiracy to illegally distribute drugs, he issued pre-signed medical prescriptions for oxycodone that were used by interns to enable just nine patients collect 20,850 tablets, it said.

Oxycodone is an opioid painkiller that can be highly addictive and is one of the substances behind the drug epidemic sweeping the US.

Anand also issued "medically unnecessary prescription medications" in what prosecutors called "Goody Bags" through pharmacies he owned if they wanted to get the controlled drugs, and billed health insurance companies and government insurance plans for the unneeded medicines.

The insurance companies and plans paid $2.3 million for the medicines in the "Goody Bags", the prosecutors said.

When Anand became aware of the investigation, he transferred about $1.2 million to an account in his father's name and for the benefit of his minor daughter, to conceal the proceeds from the fraud, according to the prosecutors.

One of the government lawyers who prosecuted him was Arun Bodapati, who works in the Justice Department's Criminal Division's Fraud Section.

Anand is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

He was originally charged in 2019 with four others, three of whom were described as medical graduates of foreign universities without licence to practice medicine in the US.

On December 14, 2017, an Indian-American doctor was arrested on 39 charges of unlawful distribution of prescription opioids and healthcare fraud, officials said.

The cardiologist was based in the US state of Nevada.

The 58-year-old doctor allegedly prescribed opioids such fentanyl, hydrocodone and oxycodone. Opiods are substances which act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects.

Cardiologist Devendra Patel allegedly prescribed the aforementioned drugs without legitimate medical cause on a routine basis from May 2014 to September 2017, according to an announcement made by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other law enforcement officials.

The accused, Devendra Patel, had appeared in a federal court in Reno city of Nevada and pleaded not guilty, the US media reported.

--IANS

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