Crime & Safety
Golden Doctor Charged With Selling Oxycodone For Cash
John Van Wu was accused in a grand jury indictment of creating false medical records to sell opioids in Lakewood and Denver.
GOLDEN, CO – A Golden doctor, accused by the federal government of medical billing fraud and selling opioids for cash, turned in his passport in Denver federal court Monday.
John Van Wu, age 48, who ran medical clinics in Lakewood and Denver, was arrested June 28 after a grand jury indicted him with 13 counts of violations of the Controlled Substances Act, mail fraud and falsification of records, the Denver U.S. Attorney's office said. He was released on a $25,000 bond, secured by William Wu of Westminster.
Between Nov. 2013 and Sept. 2014, Wu allegedly wrote fake prescriptions for 1,980 tablets containing the opioid oxycodone in exchange for cash, the indictment alleges. Wu is accused of writing the prescriptions when presented with the driver’s license of his other patients. He then allegedly created fake medical files containing false information for those patients.
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Wu was listed an an internist working out of offices at 2789 West Alameda Avenue in Denver and 1675 Carr Street, Unit 101N in Lakewood, according to the indictment. His practice was affiliated with Exempla Lutheran Medical Center.
Wu also allegedly submitted more than $13,000 worth of fake bills to employee benefit programs and insurance companies for "expensive, time-consuming office visits when his patients had relatively routine ailments," a statement from the Denver U.S. Attorney's office said. Wu is also accused of billing for injections that he never performed.
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Messages sent to Wu's attorney, Dru Nielsen, were not immediately returned.
The case is being investigated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Department of Labor Employee Benefits Security Administration, as part of a U.S. Department of Justice national crackdown on Medicaid- and other forms of medical fraud.
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