Defendants
Allegedly Sold False Prescriptions for the Drugs
WASHINGTON—Three people have been
indicted by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from their roles in
conspiracies to distribute oxycodone and methadone, engage in health care
fraud, and launder the illegal drug proceeds.
The indictment, returned May 1, 2012,
was announced by U.S. Attorney Ronald C. Machen Jr.; James W. McJunkin,
Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; Patrick E.
McFarland, Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management; and
Michael S. Barcus, Special Agent in Charge for the Washington Region of the
U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Inspector General-Office of Labor
Racketeering and Fraud Investigations.
Monifa S. Ahmed, 39, and Derrick Byas,
43, both of Capitol Heights, Maryland, were arrested May 2, 2012. Carolyn
Nolan, 59, of Brentwood, Maryland, the mother of Monifa Ahmed and an employee
of the U.S. Department of Labor, was arrested the following day. All have
appeared in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and pled not
guilty to the charges.
The indictment charges the defendants
with conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and methadone, conspiracy to engage in
health care fraud, and conspiracy to launder drug trafficking proceeds. Each
offense carries a maximum possible penalty of up to 20 years in prison and
fines of up to $1 million, along with significant forfeiture of assets and
criminally derived proceeds.
Oxycodone is the active ingredient in a
controlled substance prescription required pain killer commonly marketed as a
pharmaceutical called oxycontin. Methadone is also a powerful prescription
required pain killer, which also has some medical value in treating heroin
addiction.
The indictment charges Ahmed, Byas, and
Nolan with leadership roles in the conspiracy. According to the indictment,
Ahmed, while employed as an office manager of a medical office and pain clinic,
took blank prescriptions and prescription pads from her employer physician
without his knowledge and approval. She provided the prescriptions in blank or
with a forged doctor’s signature to others, including those charged with her,
who in turn would present them to various pharmacies in the area.
In the event that a pharmacist would
call to verify the prescription, Ahmed was present in the office and would
verify the prescription as authentic even though it was forged and invalid.
The group is charged with presenting 133
false and forged prescriptions. They allegedly made money selling the
prescriptions to others, or presenting the prescriptions to be filled and then
selling the medication, which was almost always oxycontin. The group sometimes
recruited persons with Medicare health insurance benefits to pay for the cost
of filling the forged prescriptions. In Nolan’s case, she is charged with using
a health insurance plan funded by the U.S. Department of Labor and the Office
of Personnel Management, to pay for the pills.
The group took advantage of a large and
lucrative market in illegally obtained painkillers like oxycodone. Abuse of
prescription-required painkillers, like oxycontin, has emerged as a significant
national health threat. The Centers for Disease Control and the Drug
Enforcement Administration announced in November 2011 that “prescription
painkiller overdoses are a ‘silent epidemic’ killing more Americans than heroin
and cocaine combined.” The National Survey of Drug Use and Health reported that
“one in 20 people in the United States aged 12 or older—12 million
people—reported using prescription painkillers non-medically in 2010.”
An indictment is merely an allegation
that defendants have committed a violation of criminal law and is not evidence
of guilt. Every defendant is presumed innocent until, and unless, proven guilty
in a court of law.
The prosecution grew out of the efforts
of the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, a multi-agency team
that conducts comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and
money laundering organizations. The principal mission of the nationwide program
is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and
money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s
drug supply.
In recent years, investigations by this
task force have led to the arrests and indictments of dozens of people from
drug organizations that operate in the Washington, D.C. area.
This case was investigated by the Health
Care Squad of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, as well as the Office of
Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of the
Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Labor. It is being prosecuted by
Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. Dominguez, who presented the case to the grand
jury.
No comments:
Post a Comment