A California man was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison for recruiting corrupt doctors and stealing physicians’ identities in order to divert prescription painkillers, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Minas Matosyan, 40, of Los Angeles, pled guilty last April to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. According to court documents, he hired doctors who allowed him to write opioid prescriptions in their names and license numbers in exchange for kickbacks.
Matosyan also oversaw a number of fake medical clinics that opened and closed throughout the greater Los Angeles area in “nomadic” fashion, authorities said. He staffed these clinics with receptionists who lied to pharmacists calling to authenticate prescriptions.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Barron said between January and September 2016 — when law enforcement’s investigation was most active — names and licenses of seven physicians were used to write phony narcotics prescriptions.
None of the physicians have been charged with any crimes. Barron could not comment on whether there were any related cases involving physicians.
Aside from the physicians who willingly participated, others had their identities hijacked to aid the scheme. During the conspiracy, customers attempted to fill fraudulent prescriptions from Matosyan that were written by a doctor who was hospitalized and later died.
Upon learning that the doctor died, Matosyan instructed co-conspirator receptionists to conceal that these prescriptions were phony by lying to pharmacists who called to authenticate them. He told them to say that the doctor was working at another location and could not come to the phone.
In May 2016, Matosyan offered another doctor a “very lucrative” position, telling him that he would “sit home making $20,000 a month doing nothing.”
When the doctor refused, Matosyan stole his name and license number, obtained prescription pads from a local print shop and wrote prescriptions in the doctor’s name, according to the DOJ. Over the next 2 months, Matosyan and his co-conspirators used this doctor’s license to prescribe nearly 9,500 oxycodone and 1,000 hydrocodone pills.
Barron told MedPage Today that Matosyan’s 9-year sentence — which he called “substantial” following a guilty plea — sends the message that the consequences for crimes that profit from the opioid epidemic are severe.
“We are here to protect the integrity of the medical profession,” Barron said in an interview. “To make sure doctors who are practicing legitimately can do so with these drugs, but also that opioid addicts aren’t used for schemes that profit from and grow their suffering.”
There have been a total of 11 convictions in this case, including lead defendant Matosyan and his younger brother, Hayk. Matosyan’s sentencing also comes after he admitted to conspiring with others, including a lawyer, to falsify medical records in an attempt to hinder a police seizure of Vicodin from one of his customers.
Matosyan’s attorney did not respond to requests for comment from MedPage Today.
Source: MedicalNewsToday.com
