Former Drug Company CEO Convicted Of Illegal Opioid Distribution

ROCHESTER, NY — The former head of a pharmaceutical distributor was convicted Wednesday in federal court of conspiring to distribute unlawfully oxycodone and fentanyl.

Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Laurence F. Doud III, the former CEO of Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc., was convicted following a two-week jury trial.

He was also found guilty of conspiring to defraud the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"In a first of its kind prosecution," Williams said, "Laurence Doud was held responsible for contributing to the opioid epidemic in the country by conspiring with others in his company to ship massive amounts of dangerous and highly-addictive oxycodone and fentanyl to pharmacies that he knew were illegally dispensing those controlled substances to drug dealers and addicts."

According to evidence presented at trial, from 2012 through March 2017, Doud knowingly violated federal narcotics laws by distributing through his company dangerous, highly addictive opioids to pharmacy customers that it knew were being sold and used illicitly.

The company, at the direction of Doud and others, distributed controlled substances to those pharmacies even after "red flags" had been identified.

Additionally, quantities of the drugs were dispensed in amounts higher than accepted medical standards and brought on pharmacy customers that had been terminated by other distributors.

Doud also took steps to conceal the company's illicit drugs from the DEA from 2012 through March 2017 by not investigating, monitoring or reporting to the federal agency pharmacies that he and the company knew were diverting the drugs for illegal usage.

Doud, 78,, of New Smyrna, Florida, was convicted by a jury of one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years, and one count a conspiracy to defraud the U.S., which carries a maximum prison term of five years.

He is scheduled to be sentenced June 29.

In April 2019, Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc. was ordered by the government to pay a $20 million penalty for its "knowing failure" to comply with its legal obligation to report red-flagged orders to the DEA.

William Pietruszewski, the company's former chief compliance officer, pleaded guilty in April 2019 in a plea deal. The 53-year-old Oak Ridge, New Jersey, resident was charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and willfully failing to file suspicious order reports with the DEA.

The investigative team included the DEA's Westchester Tactical Diversion Team, comprising Special Agents, Diversion Investigators, and Task Force Officers from the DEA, Westchester County Police Department, Town of Orangetown Police Department, Rockland County Sheriff's Office, Woodbury Police Department, Yonkers Police Department, New Windsor Police Department and Putnam County Sheriff's Office.