Fountain Valley Pharmacist Gets 2 Years for Drug Ring Conspiracy

An ex-pharmacist who owned two Southland drug stores was sentenced today to two years behind bars for illegally distributing the painkiller OxyContin without legitimate medical purpose.

Elizabeth Duc Tran, 49, of Fountain Valley, whose Mission Pharmacy had outlets in Panorama City and Fountain Valley, pleaded guilty in September 2013 to a federal conspiracy count tied to a drug trafficking ring based at a medical clinic in the Westlake district of Los Angeles that illegally distributed more than 1 million OxyContin pills, court papers show.

U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson further sentenced Tran to serve three years of supervised release after she gets out of prison and pay a $20,000 fine.

As part of her plea agreement, Tran agreed to voluntarily surrender her pharmacy license and DEA registration and will forfeit about $208,000 to the government.

An indictment filed in Los Angeles federal court describes Lake Medical Group on West 8th Street in Los Angeles as a “prescription mill” that both generated prescriptions for unneeded OxyContin and submitted claims to Medicare and Medi-Cal for medical services that were unnecessary or were never performed.

Prosecutors contend physicians based at Lake Medical knowingly diverted the OxyContin by prescribing it to people who did not have a medical need.

The indictment further states that a significant percentage of the prescriptions were filled at Southland pharmacies owned and operated by Tran and six others.

Prosecutors said Tran and others “structured” cash transactions by making bank deposits in amounts of less than $10,000 to evade bank reporting requirements in order to deal with the large amounts of cash generated from illegal OxyContin sales.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lana Morton-Owens told the court at a previous hearing that Tran “intentionally ignored” standards of medical care to make money.

Pregerson gave Tran until June 15 to turn herself in to begin serving her prison sentence.

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City News Service

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