2 Feasterville Residents Involved In Oxycodone Distribution Ring: U.S. Attorney

FEASTERVILLE, PA — Authorities have charged four Bucks County residents, including two from Feasterville, with conspiracy to distribute oxycodone, the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has announced.

Taras Trushchenko, 39, of Jamison; Armen Khimoian, 39, of Warwick; Nikita Latychev, 29, of Feasterville-Trevose; and Nik Palatnik, 23, of Feasterville-Trevose, conspired with Michael Milchin, 37, of Philadelphia to distribute the drug, authorities allege.

Milchin conspired with a total of 13 people, including Trushchenko and Khimoian, to fill hundreds of fraudulent prescriptions for oxycodone at various area pharmacies, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Milchin, a business manager at Central Bucks Health Associates in Southampton, allegedly sold the fraudulently obtained pills to others.

The fraudulent prescriptions were purported to have been written by a physician with Central Bucks Health Associates, however the physician in question had no affiliation with that medical organization and never authorized any of the prescriptions, authorities said.

The indictment further alleges that Milchin worked together with chiropractor John Vira to defraud insurance companies by billing them more than $700,000 for chiropractic services that were never provided.

"The exploitation of the healthcare system through fraudulent claims for personal gain affects all of us who rely on that system,” said Acting United States Attorney Louis D. Lappen. “The trafficking of oxycodone completely devastates individuals, their families and all of our communities. We remain dedicated to prosecuting those who illegally exploit the healthcare system and fuel the opioid epidemic.”