New Rochelle MD Pleads In Fentanyl Conspiracy Case

A New Rochelle doctor who practiced in Manhattan is the fourth MD to plead guilty to conspiracy to prescribe Subsys, a potent fentanyl-based spray, in exchange for bribes and kickbacks from Subsys’s manufacturer, Insys Therapeutics.

The nearly $200,000 in kickbacks included all-expenses-paid visits to a Manhattan strip club. The conspiracy included a speakers bureau scam that forged names of doctors who hadn't attended events.

Jeffrey Goldstein pleaded guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Henry B. Pitman, Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood.

"Goldstein is the fourth doctor to plead guilty in this case and his admission of guilt once again demonstrates that this Office will hold any physician accountable when that physician’s medical judgment is compromised by the corrupting influence of money," Berman said. "That is particularly so when the drug that is being prescribed is a dangerous opioid like fentanyl. This case should stand as a warning to the New York medical community that if you take bribes from pharmaceutical companies in exchange for prescribing – whether in the form of Speaker Program fees or otherwise – this Office will hold you to account for placing your own interests above those of your patients.”

According to the allegations:

Subsys, which is manufactured by Insys, is a powerful painkiller approximately 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. The FDA approved Subsys only for the management of breakthrough pain in cancer patients. Prescriptions of Subsys typically cost thousands of dollars each month.

In or about August 2012, Insys launched a “Speakers Bureau,” a roster of doctors who would conduct programs purportedly aimed at educating other practitioners about Subsys. In reality, Insys used its Speakers Bureau to induce the doctors who served as speakers to prescribe large volumes of Subsys by paying them Speaker Program fees.

Speakers were supposed to conduct an educational slide presentation for other health care practitioners at each Speaker Program. In reality, many of the Speaker Programs were predominantly social affairs where no educational presentation about Subsys occurred.

In fact, attendance sign-in sheets for the Speaker Programs were frequently forged by adding the names and signatures of health care practitioners who had not actually been present.

Goldstein was a doctor of osteopathic medicine who owned a private medical office on the Upper East Side. He received approximately $196,000 in Speaker Program fees from Insys in exchange for prescribing large volumes of Subsys. After he began prescribing a competitor painkiller, Insys pressured him to stop doing so and switch patients to Subsys, which he did.

Goldstein also received other items of value from Insys in order to induce him to prescribe. For example, Insys employees took him and Todd Schlifstein (they co-owned a private medical office) to a Manhattan strip club where Insys spent approximately $4,100 on a private room, alcoholic drinks, and “lap dances” for Goldstein and Schlifstein. He also arranged for Insys to pay for the annual holiday party for his private medical office.

In 2014, Goldstein was approximately the fifth-highest-paid Insys Speaker nationally. He also was the sixth-highest prescriber of Subsys in the last quarter of 2014, accounting for approximately $809,275 in overall net sales of Subsys in that quarter.

Medicare and Medicaid, as well as commercial insurers, reimbursed prescriptions written by Goldstein.

Goldstein, 49, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The maximum potential sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing will be determined by the judge.

He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Wood on Jan. 22, 2020.

Berman praised the investigative work of the FBI, and thanked the Department of Health and Human Service’s Office of Inspector General for its participation in the investigation.

The case is being prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Noah Solowiejczyk and David Abramowicz are in charge of the prosecution.