More NJ Doctors Busted In Massive $800 Million Opioid Takedown

More New Jersey residents – including two doctors – are in trouble because of their alleged roles in a fraud ring that resulted in $800 million in losses and involved more than 3.25 million pills of opioids in “pill mill” clinics and doctors’ offices.

The takedown includes new charges and convictions against 54 defendants for their roles in submitting nearly $800 million in fraudulent claims made to federal payers, including 15 doctors or medical professionals, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office release. More than 20 defendants are charged for their roles in diverting opioids.

Doctors, marketing executives, pharmacists and the owners and operators of a genetic testing laboratory have been charged with, or have pleaded guilty to a range of criminal conduct, including: the criminal prescription of highly-addictive opioid pills to patients with no medical need, the paying of kickbacks and other crimes.

The charges involve individuals contributing to the opioid epidemic, including medical professionals involved in the unlawful distribution of opioids and other prescription narcotics, the release said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, approximately 115 Americans die every day of an opioid-related overdose.

“Rooting out and prosecuting abuses within our health care system is a top priority for my office,” Craig Carpenito, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, said. “In New Jersey, these illegal activities run the gamut from over-prescribing dangerous opioids, to running pharmacies improperly, to mis-prescribing unnecessary medications, to tricking patients – often the elderly or vulnerable – into seeking expensive genetic testing or compounded prescriptions they don’t need.

Among those charged in New Jersey included these two doctors:

• Evangelos Megariotis, 66, of Clifton, an orthopedic surgeon who owns and operates Clifton Orthopedic Associates in Clifton, New Jersey. Megariotis was charged by complaint with prescribed large amounts of controlled substances, such as oxycodone, Percocet, Xanax, and promethazine with codeine outside the usual course of medical practice and without a legitimate purpose. He wrote these allegedly illegal prescriptions to patients he knew were abusing opioids. In two years, Megariotis allegedly prescribed more than 1.4 million tablets of oxycodone and over 450 gallons of promethazine with codeine cough syrup to his patients.
• Bernard Ogon, 46, of Burlington pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of health care fraud conspiracy for his participation in a vast compounded medication telemedicine conspiracy. As part of the conspiracy, Ogon admittedly signed prescriptions for compounded medications (that is, medications with ingredients of a drug tailored to the needs of a particular patient) without having established a doctor-patient relationship, spoken to the patient or conducting any medical evaluation. Ogon often signed preprinted prescription forms—with patient information and medication already filled out—where all that was required was his signature. Then, instead of providing the prescription to the patient, Ogon would return the prescriptions to specific compounding pharmacies involved in the conspiracy. Ogon was paid $20 to $30 for each prescription he signed, and his participation in the conspiracy caused losses to health care benefit programs of over $24 million, including losses to government health care programs of over $7 million, according to the release.

Also charged in New Jersey were:

• Aaron Williamsky 59, of Marlboro, and Nadia Levit, 40, of Englishtown, owners of approximately 25 durable medical equipment companies. They pleaded guilty on Sept. 18 and Sept. 25, respectively, for their participation in a health care fraud scheme related to their payment of kickbacks in exchange for doctors’ orders for medically unnecessary orthotic braces. Levit’s conduct admittedly caused losses in excess of $120 million and Williamsky’s conduct admittedly caused losses in excess of $170 million. Williamsky also pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy related to his attempt to conceal at least $1.65 million of the proceeds of the fraud, according to the release.
• Eduard “Eddy” Shtindler, 36, of Paramus, New Jersey, was charged by complaint with conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to pay illegal kickbacks to a doctor. From 2012 through at least 2017, Shtindler owned and operated Empire Pharmacy in West New York. For most of that time, Shtindler allegedly paid bribes to a psychiatrist in Hudson County, New Jersey, to induce the doctor to send prescriptions to Empire. On occasion, Shtindler secreted cash bribes in pill bottles that were delivered to the doctor. In exchange for these bribes, the doctor steered patients to Empire pharmacy, according to the release.