From Dr. Braverman's Facebook Page: "find out which patients are good candidates for HGH"
Celebrity doctor pledges to modify business practices. (from Quackwatch.com)
Dr. Eric R. Braverman
The New York State Attorney General has announced that Eric R. Braverman, M.D. and his PATH Medical clinic have agreed to revise their consent forms, more clearly disclose their charges, and ensure that patients understand that many of PATH's tests are not covered by insurance. The press release announcing the settlement stated:
As part of its focus on early detection and treatment of disease, PATH Medical conducted extensive and expensive diagnostic tests during a patient's initial visit. Those tests include echocardiograms, costing $1,900, "brain electrical activity mapping" tests, for $2,000 collectively, multiple ultrasounds, ranging from $450 to $750, as well as psychological and cognitive assessments. PATH also sold packages of tests and services to patients that ranged in cost from $10,000 to $100,000. While the business, does not participate . . . in any health insurance plans, it led some consumers to believe that a significant percentage of the charges—sometimes up to 80%—would be covered by their health plans' out-of-network benefit. However, patients' health plans were not typically covering a significant percentage of the total charges for PATH Medical's services. Indeed, some plans were routinely denying the claims submitted by the practice. These alleged inaccurate representations by PATH Medical resulted in some patients facing thousands of dollars in unexpected costs for a single visit.
Much of Braverman's practice is centered around his claim that "brain imbalances are a factor in virtually all diseases." PATH Medical's Web site claims that the brain-mapping test can detect neurotransmitter (brain-chemical) "deficiencies" associated with scores of symptoms and diseases that are treatable with dietary strategies, dietary supplements, and exercise regimens.
The New York Post has reported that (a) Braverman and his attorney Diana Moyhi were arrested for allegedly trying to steal confidential custody-case documents from a courtroom, (b) they were charged with tampering with public records and criminal contempt for disobeying a judge's orders not to remove the paperwork that was related to a nasty custody battle with his wife, and (c) the wife is claiming that their boys are not safe with him because he has tried to improperly medicate them. [March J, Conley K. Doctor accused of stealing court documents in custody fight. New York Post, Jan 30, 2015] Braverman is also facing suits from two former patients, one for fraud and the other for fraud plus malpractice. Dr. Stephen Barrett has posted a detailed history of Braverman's activities with links to relevant documents.
Anti-ageing doctor found guilty of medical misconduct after she repeatedly prescribed patients steroids and human growth hormone 'off-label' without carrying out proper tests
Dr Julie Epstein has been found guilty of medical misconduct
The Sydney anti-ageing doctor was inappropriately prescribing drugs
Steroids and human growth hormone were being given to patients
NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal said she was irresponsible
Published: 10:29 EST, 1 April 2015 | Updated: 10:59 EST, 1 April 2015
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A Sydney anti-ageing doctor has been found guilty of medical misconduct after it was revealed she had been inappropriately prescribing drugs such as steroids and hormones to her patients.
Dr Julie Epstein could also face being struck off after an investigation revealed she had been giving substances such as anabolic steroids to some 40 patients, some of whom had trouble with similar drugs in the past.
The doctor, who opened one of NSW's first anti-ageing clinics, has been prosecuted by the Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) for her conduct between August 2007 and August 2009, Fairfax Media reports.
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Sydney anti-ageing doctor Julie Epstein (not pictured) has been found guilty of medical misconduct
On Monday the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that Dr Epstein had been prescribing human growth hormone and other similar subtances 'without exercising responsible medical judgement'.
The tribunal also revealed that some patients receiving these medications, such as bodybuilders and bouncers, had a history of abusing such substances.
Other patients that visited Dr Epstein, who currently works at Atarmon on Sydney's north shore, were a woman with a history of mental illness and eating disorders, someone who was HIV positive, and another with warning signs of prostate cancer.
The fact that the anti-ageing doctor failed to measure patients body weight or body mass index before prescribing dosages, and simply took patients' word on symptoms were also aired at the tribunal.
The doctor is well known practitioner and has previously appeared in the media commenting on anti-ageing practices and similar areas.
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A tribunal found she was irresponsible diagnosing medications such as steroids and keeping inaccurate patient records
Dr Epstein also neglected to keep accurate or comprehensive records, and failed in communication with referring doctors.
The five medications she prescribed were, according to Fairfax Media's report, anastrozole (Arimidex), human chorionic gonadotrophin, human growth hormone, nandrolone deconoate and testosterone.
While the doctor prescribed drugs 'off-record', which means for a use other than their intended purpose, this in itself is not illegal.
But the tribunal found that in conjuction with her other questionable practices, it was 'difficult to find the practitioner's off-label prescribing as conforming to acceptable medical practice'.
Dr Epstein's barrister, Philip Greenwood SC asked the tribunal not to align his client's anti-ageing practice with that of conventional medicine.
Mr Greenwood cited numerous medical studies which supported her actions, which were also supported by innovation in the industry.
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Dr Epstein has been a medical practitioner for 40 years and currently works in Artarmon on Sydney's north-short (pictured)
However lawyers for the HCCC argued the case was not about the validity Dr Epstein's anti-ageing practices but her responsibility as a practitioner.
The anti-ageing doctor had previously warned in 2007 about the prescription of steroids, and came to the attention of authorities again when a patient had the drugs seized when travelling overseas.
Following these instances, restrictions were placed on her medical licence in 2009. During a hearing last year Dr Epstein said she had changed her procedures to include physical checks of her patients.
She spoke about her four decade long medical history, and spoke about her interest in 'preventative medicine'.
But the tribunal deemed her practice as 'naive', 'emotionally swayed', and in some cases 'placed her patients at risk'.
A hearing set to be held in April will determine whether Dr Epstein's medical licence will be cancelled.
"Dr. Zimmerman currently is a competitive bodybuilder and has competed in both state and national level contests." -From his website
"Dr. Zimmerman has worked with athlete's of all status from weekend warrior, to little leaguer, to state champion, to professional. Being in the heart of the running and cycling area, Dr Zimmerman has worked with numerous runners from the occasional weekend runner to 5k, half marathon, and marathon runners. He has also worked with tri-athletes at the sprint, intermediate, and ironman levels."
A west suburban chiropractor illegally imported anabolic steroids from China, then sold the possibly harmful drugs to patients locally and nationwide, according to federal authorities.
Gregory Zimmerman, 43, was charged with possessing with intent to distribute a controlled substance in a criminal complaint filed Feb. 4 and unsealed Tuesday, according to a statement from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
He surrendered to authorities on Feb. 9 and was released on a $25,000 bond.
Zimmerman illegally imported powdered steroids from China, manufactured them and distributed them to customers, according to a federal criminal complaint.
A confidential informant working with federal authorities received shipments of bulk steroid powder from China on the Zimmerman’s behalf, the complaint alleges. Zimmerman then “converted the powder into injectible liquid steroids or oral capsules” and sold them.
During a search of his home on Jan. 30, Homeland Security Investigations agents found a room that “appeared to be used as a steroid manufacturing laboratory,” the statement alleges.
They also recovered “suspected anabolic steroids in both liquid and powder form, quantities of suspected Human Growth Hormone, quantities of other substances that are being tested, as well as steroid packaging materials,” according to the complaint.
HGH and steroids are used by athletes and body builders for enhancing performance and building muscle mass, but can lead to serious health risks when not properly administered, according to ICE
Anti-aging isn't recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, meaning doctors can't officially be board-certified in it.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Thousands of physicians are catering to the baby boomers who are hoping to feel younger
Some unproven treatments for anti-aging are risky hormone therapies and fad diagnoses
Steven R. Goldstein, M.D., says two key nutrients for anti-aging are calcium and vitamin D
The anti-aging industry is expected to gross more than $291 billion worldwide by 2015
(Health.com)-- Hanneke Hops wasn't afraid of dying. What concerned her was growing old and not being able to run marathons, ride horses, or fly planes. So the 56-year-old Hayward, California, woman turned to Alan Mintz, M.D. -- a radiologist who founded the Cenegenics Medical Institute in Las Vegas, which specializes in "age management medicine."
She was prescribed recombinant human growth hormone (HGH), a synthetic version of a pituitary hormone hawked as a miraculous fountain of youth. Though the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warns that taking HGH poses serious health risks, Hops -- unaware there was any harm -- began injecting it into her thigh six times a week.
She never did grow old. Six months later, in 2004, she was dead, her liver full of malignant tumors. While it is impossible to prove that HGH therapy contributed to Hops's death, the use of HGH has been linked to an increased risk of cancer. (Mintz said at the time of Hops's death that Hops would not have been treated if he knew she had cancer.)
Today, thousands of physicians are catering to the 78 million baby boomers who are hoping to feel younger, longer -- and willing to pay for the privilege. The anti-aging industry is expected to gross more than $291 billion worldwide by 2015.
The problem is, many of these so-called anti-aging doctors are making empty promises. "They're one step above snake oil salesmen," says Steven R. Goldstein, M.D., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University School of Medicine. They prey on women who have legitimate medical concerns such as poor sleep, flagging energy, and libido loss, he says, yet they often lack the training required to treat those problems.
Even worse, they peddle therapies -- most notably, the unapproved use of hormones like HGH and customized drug cocktails -- which are unproven and can even be deadly.
The rise of the anti-aging doc
Once, middle-aged women sought out a gynecologist for menopausal symptoms, or an internist for fatigue. Now a new brand of doctor is promising to treat the above, and deliver much more: better sex, a fitter body, dewier skin.
"They often try to convince people that aging is their fault: 'If you listen to us, we can fix the problem,' " says S. Jay Olshansky, Ph.D., a research associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago.
Yet aging is a natural process, not a medical condition, and there isn't any therapy that can reverse it or slow it down, Olshansky says. Official medical associations from the Endocrine Society to the American Medical Association warn against using "anti-aging" interventions.
And while traditional doctors, such as endocrinologists (who specialize in hormones) and geriatricians (who focus on the elderly) are specifically trained to treat age-related conditions such as hormone imbalances, "not all anti-aging doctors have a degree or advanced expertise" in what they practice, Olshansky says.
In fact, anti-aging isn't a specialty that's recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, meaning doctors can't officially be board-certified in it. Yet it has its own professional society, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). Founded in 1992, A4M boasts some 24,000 members worldwide and offers a certificate in anti-aging medicine, available to any M.D.
Once a doctor sets up an anti-aging practice, she stands to make major profits. Many age-fighting treatments aren't covered by insurance, which means the M.D.s prescribing them are paid out-of-pocket, Olshansky says -- and that can add up to thousands per patient. At a time when physicians are getting lower and lower reimbursements under managed care, it's little wonder that doctors of all stripes, from emergency-room medicine to radiology, are flocking to this lucrative new specialty.
Unproven treatments
So how do you know if your doctor is making promises he can't keep? Here are the top dangers Health's investigation uncovered:
•Risky hormone therapies.The biggest weapon in the anti-aging doctor's arsenal is the willy-nilly prescribing of hormones. "The concept is that if you take a 60-year-old woman and duplicate the hormone environment from when she was 20, she'll feel like she's 20," says Nanette Santoro, M.D., director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology & Infertility at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. "It is essentially the idea of drinking the blood of young children."
It's also hazardous, because most age-erasing doctors aren't trained in using these powerful substances. "In this entire field, I've only encountered one board-certified endocrinologist," says Thomas Perls, M.D., an associate professor of medicine and geriatrics at Boston University School of Medicine. "It's outrageous that people think they can prescribe these toxic hormone soups."
The main ingredient in that soup is HGH, which naturally declines in our bodies as we age. Anti-aging doctors claim that by boosting HGH levels with injections that can cost $12,000 or more per year, you can reduce body fat, build muscle, improve sexual function, and up your energy.
But "there is no scientific proof of this," Perls says. "And studies show that increasing HGH levels with drugs predisposes people to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer" -- suggesting that the hormone may have been a contributing factor in Hanneke Hops's death.
In fact, HGH is only FDA-approved for use in a handful of conditions in adults (including adult growth hormone deficiency, which is rare), and it is illegal to distribute a product containing HGH for anti-aging purposes.
Another hot hormone is bioidentical estrogen. For decades, women have relied on synthetic estrogen to relieve menopausal symptoms such as hot flashes and vaginal dryness. But when the Women's Health Initiative study on estrogen and progestin therapy was halted in 2002 -- due to a possible hormone-related increase in the risk of heart disease, stroke, blood clots, and breast cancer -- some doctors touted bioidentical versions, made from soy and yams, as safer (though there's no proof they're less likely to raise your disease risk).
Bioidentical creams and pills made by pharmaceutical companies are available via prescription and regulated by the FDA. Still, many anti-aging docs attempt to create their own bioidentical hormone cocktails tailored to their patients' special needs.
It's this customization that is most troubling to mainstream doctors. It involves taking a prescription to a compounding pharmacy, where pharmacists mix ingredients as outlined by your physician -- and the resulting concoctions are not approved by the FDA. "When the FDA looked at compounded medicines, 43 percent of them didn't have the things that they were supposed to," Goldstein says. That means the drug you're getting may not work -- or may have unpredictable side effects.
Whether there's even such a thing as an optimal hormone level is unclear, notes Cynthia Pearson, executive director of the National Women's Health Network, a nonprofit group that advocates for women's health issues: "Women can have very different symptoms at the same hormone levels."
• Fad diagnoses.One of the newer anti-aging buzz phrases is adrenal fatigue. The theory behind the syndrome is that chronic stress causes a decrease in the production of adrenal hormones, which can cause fatigue and sleep issues.
But while there is a legitimate condition called adrenal insufficiency, which is diagnosed by an endocrinologist using a battery of tests, "adrenal fatigue is a bogus diagnosis," Perls says. What's more, the standard treatment -- hydrocortisone -- can lead to osteoporosis, diabetes, and organ dysfunction, says Jeffrey I. Mechanick, M.D., clinical professor of medicine, endocrinology, diabetes, and bone disease at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Heavy-metal toxicity is another trendy diagnosis. The concept: Removing the body's lifetime build-up of mercury, lead, and other metals can prevent or reverse age-related conditions such as heart disease. This is often attempted through chelation therapy, in which a synthesized amino acid called EDTA is run into patients' bloodstreams; the EDTA attaches to the metals, which are then flushed out of the body with urine. The process can take 20 to 40 two- to four-hour treatments, at a cost of at least $2,500.
But while chelation therapy may benefit those with heavy-metal poisoning (a rare problem), there's zero evidence it helps the rest of us. "It's quackery at its best," Perls says. "People have died from it." Case in point: In 2003, a 53-year-old Oregon woman died during her fourth round of chelation therapy. According to the medical examiner, the cause was a cardiac arrhythmia stemming from the EDTA infusion.
• Pill-a-palooza.Forget popping a simple multi-vitamin from the drugstore. "Many anti-aging doctors sell their own lines of nutraceuticals at very high prices," Perls says. "It's a profit margin that's better than what cocaine dealers get."
Don't waste your money, says Olshansky: "The vast majority of studies say anti-aging supplements don't work." Plus, they're not required to be FDA-approved before they're sold, so there's no guarantee that they're safe or effective. "We don't know if they could help, but they could be harmful," says Winifred K. Rossi, deputy director of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the National Institute on Aging.
The good news is, no one is saying that you have to just deal with hot flashes, weight gain, or any other midlife change. Fifty-plus women may not have the biology of twentysomethings, but they can still feel vibrant, healthy, and even sexy.
"Our best advice is not very different from what our mothers told us: Maintain a healthy weight, be active, eat nutritious food, and don't smoke," Rossi says. Two key nutrients also help: calcium (get 1,200 milligrams a day, preferably from food; 1 cup of yogurt has 415 milligrams) and vitamin D (aim for 2,000 IU daily in a supplement, since it's tough to get otherwise), Goldstein says.
Then, make sure you have the right medical team in place. Most women use their OB/GYNs as their go-to, but in your 40s, consider seeing a family-practice doctor or internist, too, says Pearson: "They're qualified to handle all the routine issues that come up as women hit middle age."
This back-to-basics approach may not sound as cutting-edge as special injections or souped-up supplements, but it's time-tested and a lot less costly -- for your wallet and your health. "Many of the benefits that are associated with HGH -- you can get those with exercise, for free," says Olshansky. "You don't have to spend $12,000."
In 2010, following an incident in which he displayed a handgun and a black knife while two children were sitting in a car and slashed the tires. Police responded and took Chein into custody. Chein was convicted of vandalism and placed on summary probation for three years.
He was also ordered to serve thirty days in jail, pay fines and fees totaling $180, and complete three months of anger management.
Chein violated the terms of his medical license probation by getting into trouble and by failing to report the conviction to the board.
Chein operates the Palm Springs Life Extension Institute in Palm Springs, California. In the 2005 case, he settled charges of unprofessional conduct by agreeing to (a) pay $10,000 to the State of California for costs, (b) take courses in ethics, prescribing practices, and recordkeeping, (c) refrain from making unsubstantiated advertising claims, and (d) either have his practice monitored or participate in an intensive professional enhancement program.
Case Number: 2011040338 Hearing Type: Settlement Conference Agency Number: D1-2000-107723 Agency Name: Medical Board of California Case Name: Chein, Edmund Hearing Location: Oah/la 320 W. Fourth Street, Suite 630, Los Angeles map Date: 2/17/2012 Time: 1:30:00 AM Judge Assigned to Hearing: Unassigned Court Reporter: Assigned Office: Los Angeles
Dr. Alan Lefkin
Dr. Tim Sigman
Treasure Coast Pharmacy
DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 02, 2011 Contact: David Melenkevitz, PIO Number: 954-660-4602
SEP 02 -- MIAMI – Mark R. Trouville, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Division, Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division at the Department of Justice, announced the unsealing of a federal indictment charging thirteen defendants, including five doctors, one pharmacist and one chiropractor, for their participation in, among other things, the illegal distribution of pain killers, steroids and human growth hormones through pill mills operating in Broward, Palm Beach and Martin Counties and through the internet, respectively. The charges involve a wide-ranging scheme to illegally distribute these drugs nationwide.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that Schedule II prescription painkillers, like oxycodone, today cause more drug overdose deaths than cocaine and heroin combined. Oxycodone and other Schedule II drugs have a high potential for abuse and can be crushed and snorted, or dissolved and injected, to get an immediate high. This abuse can lead to addiction, overdose, and sometimes death.
DEA Special Agent in Charge Mark R. Trouville stated, “Today’s announcement reflects the Drug Enforcement Administration’s continued efforts to take the profit out of the illegal diversion of pharmaceutical drugs. Furthermore, we are sending the message once again to those that are still profiting and those who are considering entering this business, that we remain vigilant and aggressively pursue those conducting business outside the course of accepted medical practice.”
U.S. Attorney Wifredo A. Ferrer stated, “Operation Pill Nation, Operation Snake Oil, Operation Oxy Alley, and now Operation Juice Doctor 2. In a span of just six months, we have attacked from every angle what can only be described as a homegrown prescription drug epidemic. In Operation Juice Doctor 2, we have charged corrupt pharmacy and clinic owners, complicit doctors and employees, all of whom made a handsome living dealing in prescription drugs, while hiding behind a medical license. Working with our federal and local partners, we are shutting down these dangerous pill mills and internet pharmacy operations.”
“According to the indictment unsealed today, these defendants were involved in a scheme to push dangerous drugs -- steroids, human growth hormone, and oxycodone -- into the hands of buyers who lacked legitimate prescriptions,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the Department of Justice. “Sadly, the defendants include physicians who, we allege, were doctors doing harm: ignoring their oaths and obligation to put the health and safety of patients first.”
The 42-count indictment, filed August 31, 2011 and unsealed today, charges the defendants with numerous crimes, including conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids (Count 1), distribution of anabolic steroids (Counts 2 through 21), conspiracy to distribute oxycodone (Count 22), distribution of oxycodone (Counts 23 through 25), conspiracy to distribute human growth hormone (Count 26), distribution of human growth hormone (Counts 27 through 41), and attempted importation of anabolic steroids (Count 42). Charged in the indictment are Peter DelToro, Pharm.D. , 38, of Palm City, Richard DelToro , 60, of Port St. Lucie, Jaclyn Rubino , 31, of Stuart, Pedro Carrillo, M.D., 52, of Escondido, California, Jeffrey Perelman, M.D. , 54, of Fort Lauderdale (The Longevity and Aesthetics Institute and Palm Beach Life Rx), Paul Joyce , 49, of Palm Beach Gardens, Charles Cooke , 50, of Palm Beach Gardens, Donald Montano , 74, of Jupiter, Kevin Johnson , 41, of Jupiter, Craig Beaver, D.C. , 47, of Lake Worth, Alan Lefkin, M.D. , 53, of Parkland, Steven Pearlstein, M.D. , 56, of Coral Springs, and Timothy Sigman, M.D., 40, of Sebastian.
According to the indictment, Peter DelToro, Richard DelToro, and Jaclyn Rubino operated Treasure Coast Specialty Pharmacy, in Jensen Beach, and distributed steroids, human growth hormone, and oxycodone to individuals and clinics across the nation and abroad. Other defendants named in the indictment allegedly operated various clinics, including “anti-aging,” “hormone replacement therapy,” and “pain management” clinics. The indictment alleges that the clinics employed physicians who signed prescriptions that were written by clinic operators and salespeople. The indictment further alleges that the prescriptions were issued without a physical examination of the patient, outside the usual course of professional medical practice, and not for a legitimate medical need. The prescriptions were for controlled substances and human growth hormone for unapproved uses.
The indictment also alleges that clinics forwarded the prescriptions to Treasure Coast Specialty Pharmacy in Jensen Beach, Florida, for filing and shipment directly to customers and, at times, to the clinics. According to the indictment, the pharmacy owner illegally attempted to import steroids, of the same type used to fill the clinics’ prescriptions, from China.
If convicted, the defendants face a statutory maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on Counts 1, 7 through 8, 10 through14, 17 through 21 and 42, 5 years on Counts 2 through 6, 9, 15 through16, and 26 through 41, and 20 years on Count 22 through 25.
Today’s case, dubbed Operation Juice Doctor 2, is the result of the ongoing efforts between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. Mr. Trouville thanked the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations and the Boca Raton Police Department for their invaluable assistance in this investigation.
An indictment is only an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
A Florida doctor who was linked to Treasure Coast Pharmacy has lost his medical license. The Florida Department of Health revoked Dr. Timothy Sigman’s medical license citing five cases where the doctor failed to properly evaluate internet patients and did not have medically justifiable reasons to prescribe anabolic steroids, human growth hormone (hGH) and human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG).
“Nothing short of the immediate suspension of Dr. Sigman’s license to practice medicine would be sufficient to protect the public from the danger of harm presented by Dr. Sigman,” according to the Florida Department of Health emergency suspension order.
An investigation codenamed “Operation Juice Doctor 2″ resulted in the arrest of Dr. Sigman and twelve other individuals associated with Treasure Coast Pharmacy. The arrest included the principal owners and pharmacists of Treasure Coast as well as owners and “sales consultants” associated with the anti-aging and hormone replacement clinics that used Treasure Coast to fill steroid prescriptions.
Dr. Sigman operated one such “clinic” named “Health Transformations which was registered to his home address.
Dr. Sigman was one of 57 doctors identified by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) during their investigation. Only 5 of the 57 doctors, including Sigman, were indicted.
The 57 doctors issued prescriptions for 10,774 orders of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone that were fulfilled by Treasure Coast Pharmacy. The compounding pharmacy dispensed anabolic steroids such as testosterone, stanozolol and nandrolone.
The Florida Department of Health emergency suspension order cited Sigman for the following reasons:
Prescribing anabolic steroids, hGH and fertility drugs without medically justifiable reasons;
Failure to properly evaluated patients prior to prescribing steroids, hGH and fertility drugs;
Failure to order laboratory work before prescribing drugs to three patients;
Failure to order follow-up lab work for patients; and
Providing diagnoses “completely inconsistent with the laboratory data that patients presented to him”
The Florida DOH reportedly had issues with the prescribing of anabolic steroids to an HIV+ patient and to a patient with anemia even though steroid therapy is sometimes medically indicated for those purposes.
According to TCPalm.com, the suspension order criticized Dr. Sigman for prescribing anabolic steroids to a 32-year old HIV+ patient claiming that hGH was most typically used in the treatment of HIV.
The order also criticized Sigman prescribing steroids for the treatment of anemia instead of using iron therapy.
Sigman improperly prescribed “excessive doses and combinations of androgens in methods typical of stacking regimens used for athletic enhancement” according the the DOH.
Source:
Matisse, J. (December 16, 2011). Sebastian doctor charged in steroid inquiry stripped of medical license. Retrieved from http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/dec/16/sebastian-doctor-charged-in-steroid-inquiry-of/
Texas Medical Board Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, August 25, 2008
Media contact Jill Wiggins at jill.wiggins@tmb.state.tx.us or (512) 305-7018 Non-media contact: (512) 305-7030 or (800) 248-4062
A panel of the Texas Medical Board reaffirmed an earlier panel’s suspension of the license of Charles R. Massey Jr., M.D., license number G5341, after determining that Dr. Massey’s continuation in the practice of medicine presents a continuing threat to the public welfare.
The temporary suspension hearing took place Friday, August 15, following a previous hearing, held on June 15, without notice. Dr. Massey was given notice of the August 15 hearing. He did not attend but a representative spoke on his behalf.
The action was based on the following findings:
Dr. Massey was the subject of an investigation based on a complaint that he was prescribing human growth hormone and other substances without medical necessity.
Board staff sent several subpoenas to Dr. Massey requesting the medical records of 13 specified patients, as well as various business records. Dr. Massey’s reply to the board stated: “I have reviewed the charts of the following patients…I find no prescribing irregularities or patient complaints.”
Dr. Massey also asked each of the 13 patients to be custodian of their own medical records and had them sign letters stating that they did not want their medical records reviewed by the Texas Medical Board. Finally, Dr. Massey sent a letter to the Board stating that he does not possess any of the items requested by Board staff.
On April 22, Board staff made an additional request that Dr. Massey provide the medical records and various business records per the subpoenas. Dr. Massey refused to produce the records.
The panel found that Dr. Massey’s intentional obstruction and/or interference with the Board’s investigation, through his refusal to produce records per subpoena, violate Board regulations and present a continuing threat to public safety.
The length of a temporary suspension is indefinite and it remains in effect until the board takes further action.
Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalJersey City police officer Victor Vargas, shown during a court appearance in 2008, was named in a lawsuit alleging a case of "roid rage." Vargas received anabolic steroids and growth hormone from Jersey City physician Joseph Colao, records show. The case went to binding arbitration in October.
On Jan. 31, 2007, Jersey City police officer Victor Vargas filled a prescription for Norditropin, a brand of human growth hormone. He was billed $8, the co-pay set by his government health plan.
Taxpayers picked up the remaining $1,076.
Through August of that year, Vargas, then 30, filled at least five more prescriptions for growth hormone, along with prescriptions for testosterone, an anabolic steroid, and HCG, a drug that boosts production of testosterone in the body, according to legal documents related to an ongoing brutality lawsuit against Vargas and other officers.
In all, the officer paid $96 for the three substances in those eight months. The cost to the public: $7,013.
Vargas’ purchases provide a window into the enormous financial burden borne by taxpayers under a wink-and-nod arrangement between a Jersey City doctor, Joseph Colao, and his loyal patients in law enforcement agencies and fire departments across New Jersey.
A Star-Ledger investigation has found that at least 248 officers and firefighters obtained steroids, growth hormone and other testosterone-boosting drugs from Colao before his death in August 2007. In addition, the newspaper found Colao often falsely diagnosed his patients with hormone deficiencies to justify his prescriptions, a violation of the law and medical ethics.
For the officers and firefighters in the physician’s practice, the drugs came cheap.
Like Vargas, they used their government benefits to pay for the substances in most, if not all, cases. A Star-Ledger analysis suggests the total cost to taxpayers runs into the millions of dollars, driven primarily by Colao’s willingness to so widely prescribe human growth hormone, one of the most tightly regulated drugs in the nation.
Part 3: Coming Tuesday • Booming anti-aging business relies on risky mix of steroids, growth hormone
For members of the Jersey City Police Department alone, Colao wrote 235 growth hormone prescriptions in a 13-month period, according to legal filings related to the brutality suit. The public cost of just those prescriptions, based on an average price of $1,100 per month, runs to nearly $260,000.
Pharmacy records obtained by The Star-Ledger show hundreds of other prescriptions went to law enforcement officers and firefighters from 53 agencies, including the state Department of Corrections, the State Police, the NJ Transit Police Department, county sheriff’s offices and municipal departments large and small.
As expansive as Colao’s practice became, the abuse of taxpayer funds for steroids and other hormones didn’t begin or end with one Jersey City doctor.
The Star-Ledger found Colao to be an example of a wider problem, one fueled by a lack of oversight within police and fire agencies, a reluctance by prosecutors to bring criminal charges for insurance fraud and a failure by health plan administrators to flag outlandish claims.
In the years before Colao’s death, for example, New Jersey’s residents were billed $300,000 for steroids and growth hormone a group of Trenton police officers bought over the internet from a Florida dentist, state officials confirmed.
The dentist pleaded guilty to federal drug charges. The officers were investigated but not prosecuted. Three were later promoted.
Since then, insurance companies that administer public health plans have stepped up controls, particularly over growth hormone, but there are signs little else has changed.
The Star-Ledger found hundreds of officers and firefighters, some of them Colao’s former patients, continue to receive treatment from doctors who specialize in prescribing testosterone and other hormones.
Several of those doctors said that while they don’t accept insurance for growth hormone because of its strict regulation, they generally do recommend patients use their insurance coverage for testosterone.
Briefed on The Star-Ledger’s findings, Attorney General Paula Dow, the state’s top law enforcement official, said officers and firefighters who use their government benefits to pay for such drugs when they aren’t medically necessary appear to be engaging in fraud.
And at a time when New Jersey faces “crippling” expenses and the lingering effects of the longest recession in decades, Dow said, the state can ill afford to subsidize the recreational use of steroids and other substances among public workers.
“The increased cost of benefits is a major concern for this administration, and if we can show costs are shooting up in the prescription area because of an abuse in the system, that’s just wrong,” Dow said. “It’s borderline illegal, and that alone demands we take a look at this issue.”
A Mounting Tab
Joe Ramundo didn’t think twice about using his government insurance for the trio of drugs Joseph Colao prescribed him early in 2007.
Ramundo, then 42, was a sergeant in the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department. Now retired, he said Colao reviewed his blood tests and told him he needed testosterone, HCG and human growth hormone, all of which were delivered to Ramundo’s Wanaque home from Lowen’s Pharmacy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn.
Tyson Trish/The Record Joe and Paula Ramundo of Wanaque were photographed earlier this year for a story in The Record about their appearance on the TV show "The Marriage Ref." In a subsequent interview with The Star-Ledger for this story, Ramundo, a retired Passaic County Sheriff's Department sergeant, said he got prescriptions from Joseph Colao for testosterone, HCG and HGH with co-pays of just $5.
“I don’t think he did anything wrong,” Ramundo said. “I felt more alive.”
It is illegal to prescribe growth hormone for all but a handful of conditions in adults. One of them, adult growth hormone deficiency, legitimately affects just one of every 100,000 people annually, according to the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
Told that of that estimate, Ramundo responded, “I know I needed it.”
Apparently, many of Ramundo’s former colleagues feel the same way. He said law enforcement officers from “all over” Passaic County use steroids and growth hormone, mainly obtained from doctors and wellness clinics.
Ramundo said his own regimen lasted about six months, ending with Colao’s death.
During that time, he said, his only bills were $5 co-pays.
Based on the average monthly prices for the drugs Ramundo was taking, the balance likely ran to about $8,000.
“If you need it, you need it,” Ramundo said, questioning why cost was an issue and complaining that insurance companies pocket millions of dollars each year.
“They’re all about the money,” Ramundo said. “They’re full of (expletive).”
But it wasn’t an insurance company that bore the cost of Ramundo’s treatment. Like many counties and municipalities, Passaic County pays medical claims out of a self-insurance fund, meaning tax dollars satisfied the bills.
Ramundo retired from the sheriff’s office in July 2007 with an annual pension of $76,740, records show. In March of this year, he was featured on a reality television show, “The Marriage Ref,” in which his wife told a national audience he spent too much time tanning, grooming and primping.
Ramundo was one of at least 18 Passaic County sheriff’s officers or corrections officers in Colao’s practice, The Star-Ledger found. Collectively, those officers filled scores of prescriptions for testosterone, growth hormone, HCG and stanozolol, a powerful steroid favored by athletes and bodybuilders, records show.
Photos courtesy of Bayonne Medical Center/Leon ColaoJersey City physician Joseph Colao. The picture at left is from 1997. The photo at right was taken in 2005. A survivor of triple-bypass surgery, Colao underwent a transformation. His new body: tanned, toned and muscled. In 2007, Colao died of hardening of the arteries at age 45.
Other cities and towns that took a financial hit include Newark, Paterson, Union City, Edison and Franklin Township in Somerset County. In each of those communities, at least six officers or firefighters filled prescriptions through Colao. In Bayonne and Hoboken, it was a dozen or more.
Across New Jersey, however, no municipality absorbed a bigger financial blow from Colao’s prescribing habits than his own hometown.
Colao, who was 45 when he died of heart failure [Perls: ? from steroid and GH use? He looks like he was into body building], grew up in Jersey City. And when he decided to leave a group practice in Newark, it was to Jersey City he returned, opening an office on John F. Kennedy Boulevard, not far from Lincoln Park.
The struggling pain-management practice took off in 2005 and 2006, former employees said, when Colao recast himself as an anti-aging physician specializing in hormone replacement therapy. By some estimates, he had more than 5,000 patients at the time of his death.
They included at least 40 Jersey City police officers and 27 city firefighters, all of whom received steroids or growth hormone — and in most cases both — through Lowen’s Pharmacy.
Putting a Price on It
To more precisely gauge the cost to the public, the newspaper filed a request under the Open Public Records Act seeking the city’s total payments for growth hormone and anabolic steroids among members of the police and fire departments, or nearly 1,400 people in all. Jersey City’s legal department denied the request.
But a sense of the toll on taxpayers can be found in public documents and in court records filed in connection with a Jersey City resident’s lawsuit against Victor Vargas.
The resident, Mathias Bolton, claims Vargas and another of Colao’s steroid patients, officer Michael Stise, were in the throes of “roid rage” when they mistook him for a burglar and beat him on Aug. 20, 2007. Vargas and Stise are among several officers named in the suit. The officers deny any wrongdoing.
Records subpoenaed by Bolton’s lawyer show Jersey City, which provides medical coverage for its 2,900 employees through a self-insurance fund, spent more than $255,000 on various forms of growth hormone in 2006.
By 2007, when Colao’s practice was at its height, the spending on growth hormone more than doubled, to $677,000.
Seen another way, the city spent more that year to treat growth hormone deficiency, an extremely rare disorder, than on any other medical condition, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure or diabetes, the records show.
Bolton’s steroids expert, Gary Wadler, said in court papers the spending clearly indicates abuse, noting the cost to treat growth hormone deficiency ranked 43rd among other government clients of Express Scripts, the city’s pharmacy benefits manager at the time.
City spending on various anabolic steroids also soared year over year, more than tripling to $160,000 in 2007 from $52,000 the previous year.
Express Scripts apparently rubber-stamped the flood of prescriptions, part of a broader industry failure to monitor the use of medications at the time. In September 2007, a subsidiary of the company, Specialty Distribution Services, paid a $10.5 million fine after federal prosecutors in Boston charged the firm with illegally providing HGH to athletes and entertainers.
Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy declined repeated requests for an interview about the use of steroids by city employees or the costs to the public.
His spokeswoman, Jennifer Morrill, instead released a statement saying Healy would be “troubled” if it was determined any police officer or firefighter was abusing steroids, “much less steroids paid for by the taxpayers.”
“Should the investigations of any law enforcement agencies determine that to be true, the city will demand restitution or civil action to recover those costs,” Morrill said. “However, the mayor cannot presume that the mere existence of a prescription for steroids that was written by a medical doctor and filled by a licensed pharmacy for a city employee is not medically necessary or otherwise a fraud.”
EnlargeStar-Ledger Staff Sgt. Anthony Manzo, 50, was one of a dozen current or former Trenton police officers who bought steroids or human growth hormone over the internet, paying for the drugs with their government health plans, authorities said. The total cost to taxpayers: $300,000. The state Attorney General's Office investigated the officers but did not charge them. Manzo remains on the force. (Tim Larsen/The Times of Trenton)Steroid bills for N.J. law enforcement, firefighters come at taxpayer cost gallery (5 photos)
No Charges to Answer
Fred Beaver calls it one of the great frustrations of his career in government service.
On a spring day in 2006, Beaver learned a dozen active and former Trenton police officers had been ordering vast amounts of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone over the internet for two years, beginning in 2002.
And with each purchase, the officers had used their government health benefits. State prosecutors would later peg the cost at $300,000.
As director of the Division of Pensions and Benefits at the time, Beaver oversaw the State Health Benefits Program, a self-insurance fund that covers state workers and employees for more than half of New Jersey’s school districts and municipalities.
Because Trenton participated in the plan, all of the state’s taxpayers were on the hook for the steroid and HGH purchases of a dozen cops.
“I couldn’t believe it,” said Beaver, who retired in April after eight years in the post. “Some of these guys were getting three prescriptions a week for 30-day supplies. It was the most ridiculous arrangement I ever saw.”
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, the insurer that administers the state program, eventually brought the purchases to Beaver’s attention, but he wondered why it had taken the company years to discover them.
“How did they let this go on?” he asked. “Where were the controls?”
The source of the steroids and growth hormone wasn’t even a medical doctor. Jeffrey Weiser, now 50, had been a dentist in Burlington County before giving up his practice and beginning a new life as a personal fitness consultant in Florida.
Part of that business involved peddling steroids and growth hormone for as much as $1,700 a prescription on bodybuilding websites.
Weiser later pleaded guilty to federal charges of unlawfully distributing the substances. In November 2007, he was sentenced to six months’ home confinement and four years’ probation.
Beaver expected the same sort of treatment for the police officers.
“To me, this was a clear-cut case of insurance fraud,” he said.
Beaver said Horizon forwarded the allegations to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, which spent months on the case but ultimately declined to bring charges. Incensed, the former pensions director wrote a letter to the state Attorney General’s Office requesting another probe.
That investigation lasted more than a year, ending quietly in late 2008 without an indictment.
“That points to the problem in this state,” said Beaver, who now works in the private sector. “This is taxpayer money. If you’re not willing to take this on, if you’re willing to absorb hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs, I think it’s ludicrous.”
The case was equally frustrating to Joseph Santiago, then Trenton police director. Santiago, who now serves as police director in Irvington, cast the issue in moral terms, saying officers charged with upholding the law, and who sometimes testify under oath in narcotics cases, appeared to be buying drugs illegally.
At the same time, he said, he worried officers on steroids could be susceptible to episodes of increased aggression. Santiago said he reviewed the officers’ records, finding a “significant amount” of excessive force complaints.
“When you looked at these records, you start to see where there might be a correlation,” he said. “Is it absolutely clear? No. Would a complaint have been there regardless of steroids? Those are issues that need to be addressed.”
One of the officers, Jason Woodhead, was named in a civil suit alleging he and another officer severely beat a 53-year-old man in 2004 for disobeying an order to remain in his home while the pair conducted an investigation outside.
The resident, Charles Hendrix, suffered a broken nose, broken ribs, a broken hand and spinal injuries, according to the suit. In April of this year, the city settled with Hendrix for $500,000, court records show. Taxpayers picked up that tab, too.
Woodhead, now 32, was one of six officers implicated in the internet purchases to remain on the Trenton force through the state and county investigations.
Marc Bellagamba/The Times of TrentonTrenton detectives John Zappley, right, and Anthony Manzo, left, escort a suspect out of Superior Court in Trenton in this 2001 photo. Zappley and Manzo are now sergeants. The two are among a dozen officers who bought human growth hormone or steroids over the internet, paying for the drugs with their government health plans, authorities said.
The others are Sgt. John Zappley, 43; officer Matthew Przemieniecki, 32; Detective Randall Hanson, 41; Detective Anthony Manzo, 50; and Lt. Joseph Valdora, 50, the president of the department’s Superior Officers Association.
In September 2008, as the investigation dragged on, Santiago stripped the officers of their weapons and put them on desk duty. Within a week, all but Hanson were in a Trenton courtroom, asking a Superior Court judge to compel Santiago to return their weapons, according to a published account. The judge declined.
It turned out to be moot.
Santiago left the department later that month, forced out because he did not comply with the city’s residency requirement. The officers were soon reinstated.
Woodhead and Manzo are now sergeants in Trenton. Valdora, promoted to captain in April 2009, retired in October. None of the officers responded to requests for comment.
A seventh officer, Detective Robert Smith Jr., took a job with the Mercer County Sheriff’s Office. Today, he is chief instructor at the county police academy. Smith did not respond to requests for comment.
The other five officers retired either before or directly after the internet purchases were discovered. Four of them could not be identified. The remaining retiree, Sgt. Richard Merlino, left the department in December 2004 at age 41.
Merlino, who now lives in South Carolina, called the allegations “90 percent baseless.”
“There’s a lot of untruths to the story,” he said.
In response to the complaints by Beaver and Santiago, a spokesman for the Attorney General’s Office said prosecutors, after a careful analysis, determined they couldn’t prove the officers intended to break the law.
Several factors played a role in the decision, said the spokesman, Peter Aseltine, noting that Horizon signed off on the officers’ reimbursements and that a pharmacy filled the prescriptions.
In addition, Aseltine said, the dentist misled his customers by identifying himself as a medical doctor, a fact cited by the officers in claiming they didn’t realize they were engaging in wrongdoing.
“I’m not commenting on the validity of the officers’ claims, but I am commenting on the difficulty we would have had in proving the requisite mental state,” Aseltine said. “The mental element can be the hardest part of a case to prove.”
Casey DeBlasio, a spokeswoman for the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, declined to comment.
Tightening the Reins
If one positive development has emerged from the misuse of taxpayer funds for muscle-building drugs, it’s that the insurance industry is paying better attention.
Prescriptions and reimbursement claims for human growth hormone are no longer routinely waved through without a second look, industry officials say, and doctors who prescribe large amounts of steroids are more likely to face inquiries from investigators.
“We’ve got some good controls in place across many of our products now,” said Thomas Rubino, a spokesman for Horizon, the state’s largest insurer. “We challenge and seek additional information from the provider making a request for the prescription of a human growth hormone or a steroid. Awhile ago, that would have just gone through the system.”
The changes grew out of hard lessons.
Beyond the Trenton case, Rubino said, the company took note of spikes in steroid and HGH prescriptions in 2006 and 2007. By looking deeper, investigators found millions of dollars had been lost to fraud.
“The cases we investigated have been significant-dollar cases,” Rubino said. Other industry officials say investigators are now better trained to look for patterns that could indicate fraud.
A patient taking an anabolic steroid in conjunction with an estrogen-blocker, for example, might signal an effort to avoid the development of excess breast tissue, a side effect of steroid abuse. A large number of young men receiving testosterone from a single doctor also would raise a red flag.
“All these drugs have legitimate and important medical uses, but you have to look at the context of how they’re being prescribed,” said Steve Russek, chief clinical officer of Accredo Specialty Pharmacy, a division of Medco Health Solutions.
Medco administers prescription benefits for some 65 million people across the country. When former Passaic County sheriff’s officer Joe Ramundo put through his claims for growth hormone and testosterone, it was Medco that signed off on them.
The increased scrutiny may have cut the costs to taxpayers, but it hasn’t entirely eliminated them.
Testosterone — which can run up to $300 per month, depending on the dose and the form in which it’s delivered — is a staple drug of the growing anti-aging industry. And in doctors’ offices and clinics where anti-aging medicine is practiced, law enforcement officers and firefighters can often be found.
Santiago, the former Trenton police director, contends the use of steroids in the ranks — and the related burden on taxpayers — will remain a problem unless departments and prosecutors get tougher on the issue.
“You need to signal to everybody that it’s not okay to do this,” he said. “Cops are like everyone else. They pay attention.”
Originally published: December 12, 2010 7:05 PM Updated: December 12, 2010 7:22 PM By The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. - (AP) — Hundreds of law enforcement officers, firefighters and corrections officers in New Jersey improperly obtained anabolic steroids and human growth hormone from a Jersey City physician before his death, according to a published report.
A seven-month investigation by The Star-Ledger of Newark found Joseph Colao frequently broke the law and his own oath by faking medical diagnoses to justify his prescriptions for the drugs.
The newspaper found at least 248 officers and firefighters from 53 agencies obtained muscle-building drugs from Colao, including some that have been linked to increased aggression, confusion and reckless behavior.
Six of those patients were named in lawsuits alleging excessive force or civil rights violations around the time they received drugs from him or shortly afterward.
The newspaper's seven-month investigation involved drew on prescription records, court documents and detailed interviews with the physician's employees. It found many of the officers and firefighters willingly took part in the ruse, while others were persuaded by Colao's sales pitch, one that glossed over the risks and legal realities.
In most cases, if not all, those obtaining the drugs used their government health plans to pay for the substances. Evidence gathered by the newspaper suggests the total cost to taxpayers reaches into the millions of dollars.
Colao's younger brother, Leon Colao, disputed the claims made against his brother. He said that in the several years he worked as his brother's office manager, he never saw him push a drug that wasn't medically necessary. Leon Colao left the practice in 2005, returning to work there shortly before his brother's death.
"My brother worked a very long time to get his medical license," Leon Colao told the newspaper. "He wouldn't jeopardize that for anything in the world."
According to the report, Colao — who was 45 when he died of hardening of the arteries in 2007 — steered his clients to a Brooklyn pharmacy that sent him boxes of HGH as a kickback.
He apparently began prescribing the drugs in earnest in 2005, and his practice quickly grew, drawing law enforcement officers and firefighters from across the state who — according to the report — learned about Colao through word of mouth.
State Attorney General Paula Dow called the newspaper's findings "disturbing" on a number of levels. She said the issue should be collectively examined by state officials, prosecutors and police chiefs.
"If it's shown that these law enforcement officers are getting steroids and human growth hormone through illegal manners, and specifically through false prescriptions, that's a violation of the law," Dow said. "It's a fraud on the system, and it's something that should be stopped."
At the time of his death, Joseph Colao was under investigation by the state Board of Medical Examiners, which licenses and disciplines doctors. The board opened an investigation into Colao in March 2007, though it did not contact him in the five months before his death, spokesman Jeff Lamm said.
Colao also was dealing with other problems in his final months.
Medicare officials had conducted a fraud investigation of his practice in 2006, and Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield was demanding to see records. The insurer would later file a $900,000 notice of claim against Colao's estate, alleging he falsified diagnoses to prescribe growth hormone, a Horizon spokesman said.
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Information from: The Star-Ledger, http://www.nj.com/starledger
A prominent Milwaukee doctor who was involved in prescribing human growth hormone has been charged with tax violations, including not reporting nearly $500,000 in income over a three-year period.
Leon Cass Terry, the former chairman of the department of neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin, has agreed to plead guilty, according to a plea agreement filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee.
As part of the agreement, Terry, who lives in Whitefish Bay, has agreed to cooperate with federal officials in an investigation and grand jury case in another state, thought to be Connecticut.
The investigation is believed to involve the wrongful distribution of human growth hormone, a product that has been used by professional athletes, bodybuilders and others seeking its possible anti-aging properties.
The status of the case, which involves officials in Connecticut, was not known, although Terry is considered a witness, not a target, in that investigation, a source said.
Terry has been involved in prescribing human growth hormone with businesses in Florida and California dating back to the 1990s.
The charge against Terry says he worked as a consultant for Nexos Therapeuticals, which has an address in Miami. Terry's résumé indicates he was chief medical officer with the company from 2003 to 2007.
The plea agreement said he reviewed patient records and test results to see if they could get prescriptions for human growth hormone. In that job, he got 40% of the monthly profits from Nexos' hormone replacement business.
That income ranged from $4,000 to $8,000 a month.
Most of the work with patients was done over the phone and only occasionally in person.
A call to a number listed for the Miami business indicates it is no longer in service.
Terry could not be reached for comment.
His attorney, Nathan Fishbach, said he is cooperating with the government and will enter a guilty plea in a few weeks.
"He wants to move on with his life," Fishbach said.
Terry was a professor of neurology at the Medical College from 1989 to 2003. He was chairman of neurology from 1989 to 2000.
Terry was charged with reporting taxable income of $105,522 in 2005 and a total tax of $11,001 when the actual amounts were substantially more.
The plea agreement indicates that he understated his income by $497,211 for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005, resulting in an understatement of his tax by $170,576 for those years.
Nexos did not provide 1099 forms for those years, and Terry claims that he was told by the president of Nexos that the payments to him were not taxable, according to the plea agreement.
However, accountants who prepared tax returns for the company said the payments to Terry were classified as consulting services and were considered taxable.
Indeed, IRS investigators obtained records from Terry's purchase of a Porsche automobile in 2005 for $72,000. In documents for that purchase, he listed his income as $426,000, more than four times what he reported.
Terry faces up to three years in prison, although his sentence can be reduced if he provides substantial assistance to the government in its other investigation.
Federal charges are the result of five-year investigation
The founder of two Deerfield Beach firms suspected of illegally selling human growth hormones and anabolic steroids was criminally charged this week after a five-year federal investigation.
Thousands of customers of PowerMedica and Metragen Pharmaceuticals obtained anti-aging, muscle-building drugs without valid prescriptions under Daniel L. Dailey's watch, according to federal charges filed late Wednesday. Dailey was PowerMedica's chief executive officer and later ran Metragen, a company he started.
Dailey, of Deerfield Beach, also is accused of hiring a dentist and a doctor with a revoked medical license to sign off on some of those prescriptions without needed medical reviews. Efforts by the Sun Sentinel to reach Dailey by e-mail for comment Thursday were unsuccessful.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration raided PowerMedica's office at 600 W. Hillsboro Blvd. in February 2005, carting off boxes of drugs and 16 file cabinets. The business shut down eight months later, but federal authorities say Dailey transferred its assets to Metragen. Federal authorities allege Metragen continued to sell drugs without valid prescriptions until January 2007.
Dailey, 50, faces two criminal charges — conspiracy to unlawfully distribute human growth hormones and conspiracy to distribute steroids. Each charge carries up to five years in prison.
Federal authorities also unsealed a four-count indictment this week against James M. D'Amico, the dentist accused of lying about being a medical doctor and signing off on improper prescriptions. D'Amico, who federal authorities say was PowerMedica's chief medical consultant, faces the same drug charges as Dailey. In addition, he has been charged with two counts of lying to the federal grand jury that investigated the company.
D'Amico was arrested Tuesday in Central Florida, court documents show.
Earlier this month, New York doctor Manuel Sanguily was charged with rubber-stamping prescriptions for PowerMedica. Sanguily's first court appearance is scheduled for April 23.
PowerMedica opened in 2000, advertising in bodybuilding and fitness magazines as well as on the Internet. Customers would call in, often seeking human growth hormones for non-medical uses like bodybuilding or athletic enhancement, according to court records.
Salespeople, many without any medical background or training, would prepare a custom drug order for clients. Oftentimes, customers would get their prescriptions without having a doctor review their medical history forms or ever meet with them, federal authorities allege.
PowerMedica purchased the human growth hormones from China.
In interviews following the PowerMedica raid, Dailey said his company was in full compliance with the law and might be the victim of "a steroid witch hunt."
Among the names that cropped up In PowerMedica documents were those of eight Broward Sheriff's deputies. Internal affairs inquiries cleared them, but documents related to the investigations remain confidential because of the ongoing federal inquiry.
Dailey has said that up to 60 law enforcement officers and firefighters across the country were customers.
Doctors can legally prescribe human growth hormones to patients who can no longer naturally produce them.
Here is an example of physician who was prescribing growth hormone for unapproved uses and plead guilty to 333(e)(1) (the Federal law statute that prohibits distribution of growth hormone for purposes other than those approved by the Secretary of HHS, eg the FDA).
Along these lines, note that numerous states prohibit specifically prescribing. But even under 333(e)(1) if the physician’s prescription is unlawful (not one of the uses approved by the secretary of HHS) then it is not a lawful prescription and hence the physician is distributing. The other way to consider such prescribing is as “aiding and abetting” the distribution of hGH in violation of 21 USC 333(e)(1).
Lynne Piere Osteopathic Physician
Order to unseal judgement against Lynne Piere
News Release [print friendly page] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 29, 2009 Contact: Chuvalo J. Truesdell PIO/AFD Number: 404-893-7124
Doctor Pleads Guilty to All 175 Charges of Illegal Prescriptions Dr. Philip Astin III Admits Prescribing Drugs Improperly Over 5-Year Period
JAN 29 -- Atlanta, Georgia - Dr. PHILIP C. ASTIN, III, 52, of Carrollton, Georgia, has entered a guilty plea to all 175 counts of a superseding indictment charging him with illegally dispensing prescription drugs from 2002 until his arrest in 2007.
Rodney G. Benson, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the DEA Atlanta Field Division (AFD) stated, “DEA continues to actively investigate medical doctors, pharmacists and other clinicians who indulge in illegal prescribing practices. Although Dr. Astin admitted guilt in this case, the scarred lives of the addicted patients may never heal and he cannot bring back the patient who died of an overdose from drugs prescribed by him. His fate now rests in the hands of the United States’ judicial system where he will be held accountable for his deplorable actions. Today’s guilty plea illustrates how DEA and our local, state and federal law enforcement counterparts are committed to eradicating this problem.”
David E. Nahmias, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, said, “Communities in Carroll County and throughout North Georgia were harmed by the hundreds of illegal prescriptions written by Dr. Astin and the terrible addictions caused or fed by these drugs. This case demonstrates the irreparable damage that can be done when a doctor violates his oath to help others and instead chooses the path of illegal drug dealing. Dr. Astin has now admitted his criminal conduct, and we will continue to work hard to ensure that he receives an appropriate sentence that ensures he is never able to harm anyone again.”
ASTIN pleaded guilty to offenses relating to 19 patients who received hundreds of illegal prescriptions for methadone, Percocet, Oxycontin, M.S. Contin, Demerol, Lorcet, Ritalin, Vicodin, Klonopin, Vicoprofen, Xanax, Adderall, and Soma. Through the plea agreement, ASTIN further admitted that the prescriptions he issued resulted in the death of one patient when she overdosed on the drugs. ASTIN also admitted that he wrote and filled 16 prescriptions for Lortab, Xanax, Dexedrine, Adderall, and Ritalin in the names of two patients without their knowledge.
According to United States Attorney Nahmias and the information presented in court: From approximately May 2002 until the date of his arrest in July 2007, ASTIN intentionally wrote prescriptions for controlled substances that were not for a legitimate medical purpose and were not in the usual course of a physician’s professional practice. ASTIN dispensed these prescriptions without conducting the appropriate physical examinations and diagnoses to justify the prescriptions and, as a result, many of the patients who received these illegitimate prescriptions became addicts or had existing addictions which were fed by the illegitimate prescriptions.
ASTIN admitted that he dispensed the painkillers and other drugs that the patients requested without an adequate medical history, physical exam, x-ray, MRI, or referral to a orthopedist or pain management specialist. ASTIN also wrote prescriptions in quantities and in contexts that bore no relationship to a legitimate medical problem or legitimate pharmacological benefit–for example, combinations of several painkillers dispensed together along with muscle relaxers, sleep aids, amphetamines, and other drugs, that are commonly abused together and referred to as “cocktails” by drug abusers.
ASTIN also admitted to writing multiple prescriptions for the same drug on the same date, sometimes as many as four simultaneous Percocet prescriptions to the same patient for the same 30-day period, and wrote undated prescriptions as well. Federal law requires medical practitioners to sign and date each prescription for controlled substances on the date that it is issued. Finally, ASTIN dispensed methadone as a maintenance therapy without the proper license to dispense drugs in this fashion and in quantities and durations that readily perpetuated the addiction of these patients.
The evidence presented at the plea hearing included descriptions of several of the patients to whom ASTIN wrote illegal drugs. For example, two married patients were abusing Lorcet, Xanax, and Soma they received from another doctor and heard from an acquaintance that Dr. ASTIN would give them the prescriptions without conducting a thorough examination. The female patient began receiving the same drugs from ASTIN in 2002 and developed an addiction to the drugs, which continued until her death in 2007. Her husband told investigators that ASTIN never performed any kind of medical examinations or tests to justify the prescriptions that he and his wife received. On June 20, 2007, the patient overdosed on Lortab, Xanax, and Soma that was prescribed by ASTIN and died from acute toxicity of the drugs.
Another patient, who was a professional wrestler, said that it was widely known in the professional wrestling community that ASTIN would dispense prescriptions without performing a medical examination. This patient received prescription drugs, including Lorcet, Percocet, Xanax, and Soma, from ASTIN from December 2004 until November 2005, and said that he did not receive a legitimate medical examination or testing from ASTIN during that time. The wrestler developed an addiction to the drugs, and ASTIN never questioned his addiction and instead simply wrote prescriptions for larger quantities of pills. The patient said that a number of professional wrestlers obtained prescription drugs from ASTIN for the purpose of abusing the drugs, adding that some of these wrestlers also were addicted to the drugs.
ASTIN was charged in a superseding indictment on May 29, 2008, with 174 counts of illegally distributing prescription drugs and one count of conspiring to distribute prescription drugs. ASTIN pleaded guilty to all 175 counts of the superseding indictment. He could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000,000 on each count. In determining the actual sentence, the Court will consider the United States Sentencing Guidelines, which are not binding but provide appropriate sentencing ranges for most offenders.
Sentencing is scheduled for May, 12, 2009, at 10 a.m., before United States District Judge Jack T. Camp.
ASTIN surrendered his medical license at the time he was arraigned on these charges. This case is being investigated by Diversion Investigators of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Fayette County Sheriff Department’s Drug Suppression Task Force, with the assistance of the West Georgia Drug Task Force, and the Carroll County Sheriff’s Department.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys John Horn and Jeffrey Davis.
SAC Benson of the DEA AFD encourages parents, along with their children, to educate themselves about the dangers of legal and illegal drugs by visiting DEA’s interactive websites at www.justhinktwice.com and www.dea.gov. DEA.gov takes you directly to the Diversion Control and Prescription Drugs link.
A California doctor who was accused in the Mitchell Report of prescribing steroids and human growth hormone to Major League Players was sentenced six months home detention.
An indictment handed down in March 2008 said that agents for Major League Baseball players referred their clients to Scruggs to obtain performance-enhancing drugs. Scruggs' patients included former Mets pitcher Scott Schoeneweis and Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus.
The illicit prescriptions written by Scruggs were forwarded to pharmacies in California and to Signature Pharmacy in Orlando. Signature Pharmacy was at the center of the Albany County District Attorney's office investigation into illegal Internet drug distribution.
At times, according to the indictment, the drugs dispensed were preloaded with anabolic steroids and sent directly from New Hope to Scruggs' clients.
Scruggs preached that steroids and HGH could improve quality of life for his patients, some of whom he never saw personally.
Scruggs was charged with conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids, including the hard-core steroids nandrolone, testosterone and stanolozol, HGH and other prescription drugs to baseball players and law-enforcement personnel for "non-legitimate purposes, including performance enhancement, aesthetic body improvement and other non-medical reasons."
Scruggs pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and HGH and one count of money laundering in June.
In April 2009 the Medical Commission permanently revoked the license of physician Howard J. Levine (MD00019774). Levine engaged in a pattern of illegal conduct and incompetent medical practice; illegally prescribed controlled substances to individuals who weren’t his patients and failed to examine them; has two federal felony convictions; failed to comply with previous agreed orders; and tested positive for use of controlled substances. The commission believes Levine can never be rehabilitated and can never regain his ability to practice medicine with reasonable skill and safety.
September 21, 2007
Susan E. Gallagher
Re: Your Open letter to Government Officials of Nevada
Dr. Frank Shallenberger, Nevada and Georgia
Dear Ms. Gallagher:
Your letter has been referred to me for response on behalf of the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners. I was present when you and your sister, Anne, came before the Board last December and I was, and am, personally saddened by the death of your sister, Ellen, and the anguish being experienced by you and Anne.
On behalf of our Board, I can tell you that your complaint against Dr. Frank Shallenberger went through the standard process to determine if there had been a violation of any statutes under the Nevada Medical Practice Act found in Nevada Revised Statutes, Chapter 630. Our process includes review by our investigations department, gathering of all relevant medical records, review by our Medical Review staff, which included a licensed Nevada allopathic physician, and review by one of our investigative committees, which includes two of our licensed physicians. The decision was made to close your sister’s case because there was not a violation of the statutes we enforce. It may be that we need more laws, but that is not within our province.
The Board has yet to explain why it viewed Shallenberger's treatments as homeopathic rather than allopathic, nor has the Board referred to any specific medical records, testimony, or statutes that would support its decision. Instead, all indications are that nothing other than Shallenberger's unsupported assertions were taken into account. Note: In line with its primary role in crafting and commenting on regulations related to medical treatment, a Medical Board representative routinely testifies before the state legislature. Over the past several years, the Board's legislative liaison has generally focused, not on promoting public health and safety, but on legislative efforts to loosen licensing restrictions, lower insurance premiums, and raise licensing fees. Still, if Nevada needs "more laws" to police unfit physicians, it is the Medical Board's mandated responsibility to devise and promote new legislation.
Although your sister was treated by Dr. Frank Shallenberger, who has been a licensed allopathic physician in Nevada since 1984, he is also licensed as a Homeopathic Physician under the jurisdiction of the Homeopathic Board. Nevada law requires that all Homeopaths be licensed as an allopathic or osteopathic physician in some jurisdiction.
If, as the Board contends, allopathic and homeopathic care are entirely separate and independent, why would homeopaths need an allopathic or osteopathic license?
Dr. Shallenberger was acting as a homeopathic physician when he treated your sister, and he was acting under the authority of a person who could, and did, consent to whatever treatments were given. The facts that your sister had no known diagnoses, and was losing her four-year battle, make it even more difficult to say what medical procedures actually should have been performed. It is my understanding that unfortunately there had not been any success with medical procedures prior to her treatment by Dr. Shallenberger.
Again, the Board has yet to provide any grounds for its claim that Shallenberger was acting as a homeopath other than assertions he made in response to our complaint. Moreover, as indicated by other Board actions against Shallenberger, consent is not relevant to determining whether physicians have violated ordinary standards of medical care. And obviously, neither the absence of a diagnosis nor the outcome of previous treatment permits physicians to break the rules of their profession by injuring patients at will.
Susan E. Gallagher
September 21, 2007
Page 2
You are correct that Dr. Shallenberger surrendered his license in California in the mid 1990’s. This Board took action on that fact at the time, but did not address the underlying case as that had occurred in California.
Medical boards routinely address misconduct that occurred in other jurisdictions so as to protect the public from dangerous doctors and avoid creating a refuge for those who have been found unfit to practice elsewhere. As Dr. Cheryl Hug-English, former head of the Medical Board, observed in commenting on the case of a doctor who opened up shop in California after relinquishing his license to practice in Nevada, "“Surrendering a license while under investigation is the same as a revocation. It surprises me that another state wouldn’t honor that.”
You have also mentioned Dr. Shallenberger’s December 2006 Board appearance to discuss the use of human growth hormone. You correctly stated that a few doctors present that day said that they preferred to use this substance as recommended by the FDA, however, physicians may use FDA approved substances in off-label manners. Even the Medical Board in California, with jurisdiction over approximately 125,000 doctors, does not get involved in dictating how FDA-approved substances, like HgH, should be used.
In fact, the FDA has issued strict guidelineson the use of human growth hormone, and it may never be prescribed in an "off-label" manner to combat aging, as Dr. Shallenberger evidently dispenses it in his practice at the Nevada Center of Alternative and Anti-Aging Medicines. Moreover, medical boards do get involved in dictating how hGH may be prescribed, as the Nevada Medical Board did in the lead item in its Summer 2006 Newsletter.
In your letter, you have also referenced Dr. James Forsythe, who is licensed by our Board, as well as the Homeopathic Board. For the record, the Reno Gazette Journal was incorrect when it said that a state investigator called Dr. Forsythe “one of the five most serious physician offenders in Nevada”. The person allegedly quoted didn’t make that statement, nor would the Board need such a list.
No support is provided for this assertion, nor is the substance of the comment, which was made in a sworn affidavit, addressed. Since the Medical Board has failed to act on at least 18 complaints that have been made against Forsythe, could it be that he not among the five worst offenders in Nevada? If there are many other doctors who have been subject to multiple complaints without eliciting Board action, wouldn't it be wise to keep a list of these problematic physicians?
Much of your letter is critical of the Nevada State Board of Homeopathic Examiners, and I am not in a position to answer for them, but SB432, Sec. 4 (effective June 13, 2007), has significantly restricted the Nevada Institutional Review Board by listing the quite limited activities in which it may engage. You have correctly stated that there was an extension of its existence to 2009, but a closer look at the law reveals that the extension is to allow the winding up of contracts, transferring information, etc.
SB432 specifically authorized the Nevada Institutional Review Board to contract with a private company to carry out studies and other work related to nonembryonic stem-cell research. Also, since NIRB members have repeatedly insisted that the board has not entered into any contracts, there would be nothing to "wind-up" over the next two years.
Importantly, SB432 has directed a review of the status and operation of the Board of Homeopathic Medical Examiners, as well as a study of alternative and complementary integrative medicine, and whether there should be a separate regulatory board for same. There will also be an examination of the use of nonembryonic stem cells in bioregenerative medical technology. By June 30, 2008, the staff of the Legislative Counsel Bureau must submit its report on these issues to the Legislative Commission, which shall, in turn, submit the results and any recommendations to the 75th session of the Nevada Legislature in 2009. I believe the correspondence you and your sister, Anne, have provided will be very helpful to this study.
If the Medical Board remains silent on these questions, as it did when the Nevada Institutional Review Board was created in 2005, there is no reason to imagine that the Legislative Counsel Bureau will depart from its tradition of bending over backwards to aid the homeopaths' schemes.
Our Board does not have any jurisdiction or power over homeopathic physicians or the practice of homeopathy. I see that you have copied Catherine Cortez Masto, the Nevada State Attorney General on your Open Letter to Nevada State Government Officials. My suggestion, in light of your frustration with the Homeopathic Board, is that you file a written complaint with her office. I believe that the Attorney General’s office handles investigations and prosecutions of homeopathic physicians.
Since homeopathic physicians must also be licensed medical doctors, the notion that the Medical Board has no power over them would undermine the Board's statutory authority by depriving it of its ability to supervise its own licensees. In line with this fundamental premise, there is no provision in Nevada state law that permits the Medical Board to walk away from its mandate to protect the public from unfit doctors. And if the Medical Board contends that it cannot supervise homeopathic physicians because it has no expertise in this field of medicine, then it would, of course, be impossible for the Board to determine what should or should not be defined as homeopathy.
Keith L. Lee, who represents the Medical Board in the state legislature, underscored the Board's responsibility to supervise all of its licensees, including homeopathic doctors, in recent testimony before the Assembly Committee on Commerce and Labor:
Susan E. Gallagher
September 21, 2007
Page 3
I do thank you for writing and hope that I have answered your questions with regard to the Board of Medical Examiners.
Sincerely,
Bonnie Brand
General Counsel
C: Jim Gibbons, Governor of the State of Nevada
The Medical Board needs to review its legislative mandate:
(a) It is among the responsibilities of State Government to ensure, as far as possible, that only competent persons practice medicine and respiratory care within this State;
(b) For the protection and benefit of the public, the Legislature delegates to the Board of Medical Examiners the power and duty to determine the initial and continuing competence of physicians, physician assistants and practitioners of respiratory care who are subject to the provisions of this chapter;
(c) The Board must exercise its regulatory power to ensure that the interests of the medical profession do not outweigh the interests of the public;
(d) The Board must ensure that unfit physicians, physician assistants and practitioners of respiratory care are removed from the medical profession so that they will not cause harm to the public; and
(e) The Board must encourage and allow for public input into its regulatory activities to further improve the quality of medical practice within this State.
2. The powers conferred upon the Board by this chapter must be liberally construed to carry out these purposes for the protection and benefit of the public.
(Added to NRS by 1975, 411; A 1977, 820; 1985, 2224; 1987, 729; 2001, 759; 2003, 3430)
The Board also needs to pay attention to its own conclusions, as evidenced in this discussion at a retreat held, for some reason, at the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco on May 2, 200:
California-based medical guru Ramon Scruggs, who was accused in the Mitchell Report of having prescribed steroids and human growth hormone to several Major League players, pleaded guilty to two federal criminal charges Monday.
Scruggs appeared in a U.S. District Court in San Jose to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and HGH and one count of money laundering. His sentencing is set for Sept. 14.
Once the flamboyant owner of a profitable clinic called the New Hope Health Center in Costa Mesa, Calif., Scruggs preached that steroids and HGH could improve quality of life for his patients, some of whom he never saw personally. Among Scruggs' patients were former Mets pitcher Scott Schoeneweis and Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus.
The indictment a grand jury issued against Scruggs and his co-defendants in March 2008 said sports agents referred pros to Scruggs for drugs that were "unavailable to the players through lawful medical channels absent the illegal prescriptions provided by Scruggs."
Two of Scruggs' former employees, Allen Danto and Heidi McPherson, were also indicted in the case. Danto pleaded guilty earlier this month to conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and HGH. McPherson pleaded not guilty and is set for a trial beginning Sept. 21.
Documents filed by the state medical board in June 2004 and updated in June 2006 said Scruggs had “prescribed approximately 6,073 prescriptions of dangerous drugs or controlled substances over the Internet without a good faith examination of the patients” in and out of California since 2000. Scruggs settled the matter and accepted a $4,800 fine and 35 months of probation.
When an All-Star third baseman needed help recovering from a shoulder injury, he knew from one of his agents whom to call: a doctor who mailed him steroids and syringes without ever seeing him.
A journeyman catcher, fearing he would not be able to support his wife and children if he lost his spot in the major leagues, reached out to the same doctor.
A pitcher who was feeling worn down followed the same path, but another pitcher who was plagued by fatigue found an alternative: he said a team doctor injected him with steroids.
The players’ accounts, from previously undisclosed evidence related to a federal investigation of a California doctor, shed light on how pervasive steroids were in baseball from 2000 to 2004 — a time when league executives and union officials were arguing whether the use of performance-enhancing drugs was widespread enough to justify testing.
The accounts offer rare insight into why players took banned substances and depict an environment in which information about steroids was readily shared among players, agents and doctors.
Even after Major League Baseball and its players union bowed to pressure and started a testing program in 2003, the All-Star third baseman — Troy Glaus of the Anaheim Angels — and the worn-down pitcher — his teammate Scott Schoeneweis — said they continued using steroids. (Steroids had been banned in baseball since 1991, but there was no way to enforce the ban until 2003.)
Glaus said he was “willing to take the risk” because he needed to play, according to a report written by the federal agent who interviewed him. Schoeneweis said he knew when players were tested because he was his team’s union representative, according to the report, though Schoeneweis said in an interview last month that the agent misinterpreted him. A basic tenet of effective drug testing is that the element of surprise is essential.
The accounts of Glaus, Schoeneweis, catcher Todd Greene and pitcher Ismael Valdez were written by federal agents who interviewed the players as they gathered evidence in the case of Ramon Scruggs, an anti-aging doctor who was indicted last year on charges that he illegally wrote prescriptions for steroids and human growth hormone to the players, business executives, police officers and others.
A lawyer affiliated with the doctor’s case was given much of the evidence by federal prosecutors and allowed a reporter for The New York Times to review the documents on the condition he not be identified.
Glaus, Schoeneweis and Valdez were named in connection with a 2007 investigation into an Internet-based pharmacy as receiving shipments of performance-enhancing drugs; Greene had never been identified as using steroids.
Scruggs, 62, no longer has a medical license and said his lawyer was negotiating a plea agreement. Nevertheless, he is unapologetic about the players’ use of steroids.
“These players benefited from restoration, not performance enhancement,” Scruggs said in a telephone interview. “Steroids don’t make someone a good athlete or a bad athlete; they may make you stronger, but they don’t make you a better athlete.”
Baseball has toughened its drug-testing program several times since the program started in 2003, and officials point to the low number of positive tests — only three in 2008 — as proof that drug use has been curtailed. In fact, one Scruggs client, a backup outfielder named Jorge Piedra, become the second major league player suspended after baseball imposed suspensions for first-time offenders in 2005.
Still, skeptics wonder whether players have found new ways to cheat — suspicions fueled by revelations like Alex Rodriguez’s admissionin February that he used steroids from 2001 to 2003.
Frustrated with his rehabilitation, Glaus contacted Scruggs, whose only request was for a blood sample to see whether Glaus’s testosterone levels were low enough to warrant a prescription for steroids. Medical files seized from Scruggs’s office show the steroids were sent before Scruggs reviewed Glaus’s blood test.
Asked by the investigators whether he was concerned that Scruggs did not ask to see him, Glaus was quoted in the report as saying: “I just wanted to get better, it didn’t alarm me. I just wanted to get better and play.”
In a phone interview, Scruggs acknowledged he often dealt with patients via telephone: “That may seem terrible, but that’s how it is. I have caught things in hours with people on the phone that other doctors wouldn’t catch.”
It was also through phone calls that Scruggs taught Glaus how to inject himself, according to the investigators’ report.
Starting in November 2003 and for the next three months, Glaus injected himself once every four days with the steroids nandrolone and testosterone, the investigators say he told them.
“It worked, and I was getting better,” Glaus is quoted saying.
Glaus and Greene testified before a federal grand jury that they were referred to Scruggs by their agents, Mike Nicotera and Gene Casaleggio, according to people with knowledge of the testimony who insisted on anonymity because the information was sealed by a court order.
Nicotera and Casaleggio are the senior partners for the Sparta Group of Parsippany, N.J., and their Web site says they represent roughly two dozen current and former major league players and about the same number of minor leaguers.
Nicotera and Casaleggio did not respond to several telephone and e-mail messages and other attempts to reach them.
Scruggs began working with Schoeneweis after the 2002 season. Schoeneweis told Scruggs he had little energy after playing exhibition games in Japan following the Angels’ World Series victory. Scruggs prescribed steroids.
Once the testing program began, though, Schoeneweis was concerned about getting in trouble, the investigators wrote.
“Schoeneweis stated that he only used steroids one time during the season, and because he was a player representative, he knew when players got tested,” their report says.
The notion that union officials tipped off players to tests in the first two years of the program has been raised several times before, including in the Mitchell report.
Schoeneweis, a 10-year veteran now with the Arizona Diamondbacks, said in an interview during spring training that he was simply stating that all players knew they were going to be tested in 2003. He said he never received advance notice about a test.
“Player reps know the information to tell the rest of the players union, the rest of the body and the league,” Schoeneweis said. “We were knowledgeable ahead of time about what the testing program was going to be because we were negotiating it, O.K.? That’s it.”
Donald Fehr, the executive director of the players union, said in a statement that player representatives had never been told when particular players would be tested.
Greene said that he contacted Scruggs in 2001 because “he felt he was at a critical point in his career and, being married and having two kids, he was concerned that he would not be able to make a living playing baseball,” according to a report from an interview authorities conducted with him in 2005.
There was a buzz about Scruggs’s name at the Texas Rangers’ spring training facility when Valdez, the pitcher, arrived after signing as a free agent before the 2002 season.
Valdez told the investigators he had pain in his shoulder and knee, and contacted Scruggs, who mailed him syringes filled with steroids.
Valdez told the investigators he already had experience with steroids; he said a doctor with the Angels injected him with testosterone in 2001.
“Valdez said the Anaheim Angels doctor told him that his testosterone levels were low,” the federal agents wrote in their report. The report did not specify the doctor who injected Valdez.
Tim Mead, a spokesman for the Angels, said in an e-mail message that team doctors never prescribed or injected players with performance-enhancing drugs.
Marc Carlos, a lawyer for Valdez, said in a phone interview that he would review his notes from Valdez’s meeting with authorities and call a reporter back. Afterward, he did not return several telephone messages.
Valdez may indeed have had low levels of testosterone, a condition that afflicts an estimated 1 in 250 men between ages 25 and 35, but low levels of testosterone can also be a symptom of steroid use.
Documents seized from Scruggs’s office showed that Valdez was already using a veterinary steroid he had obtained from Mexico when he contacted Scruggs.
Valdez had struggled from 2000 to 2002, compiling a 19-34 record.
After contacting Scruggs, he rebounded in 2003 and 2004, when he went 22-17. In 2005, he was injured and pitched in only 14 games, and he has not pitched in the majors since.
Ups and Downs
Glaus’s career also rebounded.
In an MLB.com article published in January 2004, Nicotera, the agent, lauded Glaus’s rehabilitation, saying: “In the long run, I think this injury was a blessing in disguise for Troy. He is in the best shape of his life right now.”
Nicotera added, “He also got himself a little more educated on nutrition.”
Through the first 29 games of the 2004 season, Glaus led the American League with 11 home runs.
“Glaus said that he said he only had one chance to ‘get it right’ and continued on the same prescriptions he had previously,” the investigative documents say.
“Glaus admitted that he knew it was ‘illegal in the game,’ but the bottom line was he needed to play and wanted to play baseball,” the document says.
Twelve players tested positive that year — the second for the program — but it is not known if Glaus was among them because one-time offenders remained anonymous.
Glaus said he stopped using steroids at the end of August 2004. He returned to the lineup for the final 29 games and hit seven home runs, then he hit two more in the Angels’ three-game loss to the Boston Red Sox in the A.L. division series.
He was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2006 and made the All-Star team again. Before last season, he was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals and hit 27 homers with 99 runs batted in.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA DOCTOR AND TWO OTHERS CHARGED WITH ANABOLIC STEROID AND HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE DISTRIBUTION
Indictment Alleges Importation of Human Growth Hormone from China for Distribution in the United States
SAN JOSE – United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced that a federal grand jury in San Jose has indicted Dr. Ramon Scruggs, 60, of Tustin, California, Allan Danto, 54, of San Diego, California, and Heidi MacPherson, 39, of Laguna Niguel, California on counts of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering. In addition, Dr. Scruggs is also charged with four counts of distribution of anabolic steroids and four counts of misbranding drugs held for sale with intent to defraud and mislead.
The indictment, which was returned under seal on March 6, 2008, was unsealed today. The conspiracy charge against all three defendants alleges that the defendants conspired to: (1) distribute anabolic steroids in a manner which was outside the scope of professional medical practice, and not for a legitimate medical purpose; (2) smuggle human growth hormone into the United States in a manner contrary to law; and (3) misbrand drugs held for sale with intent to defraud and mislead.
According to the indictment, Dr. Scruggs was a physician who operated his medical practice at New Hope Health Center located in Costa Mesa, California. Under the name of New Hope Health Center, Scruggs and two employees in his office, Mr. Danto and Ms. McPherson, conspired to distribute anabolic steroids, human growth hormone (“HGH”) and various other prescription drugs in a manner outside the usual course of practice, for non-legitimate purposes, including performance enhancement, aesthetic body improvement and other non-medical reasons.
The non-legitimate prescriptions written by Dr. Scruggs were forwarded to pharmacies both inside and outside the state of California, including Signature Pharmacy, in Orlando, Florida, and the drugs were subsequently delivered from the pharmacies to Dr. Scruggs’s clients throughout the United States, including the Northern District of California. At other times, syringes were pre-loaded with anabolic steroids and sent directly from the New Hope Health Center to Dr. Scruggs’s clients.
The defendants are not in custody, and their initial appearances have not yet been scheduled.
The maximum statutory penalty for the count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and for each count of distribution of anabolic steroids in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 is five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The maximum statutory penalty for each count of misbranding drugs held for sale with intent to defraud and mislead in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 331(k) and 333(b) is three years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The maximum statutory penalty for the count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956 and the count of money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956 is 20 years imprisonment and a $500,000 fine.
However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Matt Parrella, Jeff Nedrow, and Jeff Finigan are the Assistant United States Attorneys who are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Brenda Hodgen and Susan Kreider. The prosecution is the result of a four-year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.
Please note, an indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Dr. Scruggs, Mr. Danto, and Ms. McPherson must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
Further Information:
Case #: 08-00144
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can.
Judges’ calendars with schedules for upcoming court hearings can be viewed on the court’s website at www.cand.uscourts.gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney’s Office should be directed to Jack Gillund at (415) 436-6599 or by email at Jack.Gillund@usdoj.gov.
This site does not contain all press releases or court filings and is not an official record of proceedings. Please contact the Clerk of Courts for the United States District Court for official copies of documents and public information.
A. Thomashefsky, MD, PC
Thomashefky, Allen Jan MD, ASHLAND, OR Licensee entered into a Voluntary Limitation with the Board on January 11, 2007. In this Order, Licensee agreed to not prescribe or adminster HGH for non-FDA approved indications. This order is not a disciplinary action.
Media contact Jill Wiggins at jill.wiggins@tmb.state.tx.us or (512) 305-7018 Non-media contact: (512) 305-7030 or (800) 248-4062
Medical Board Continues Licensure Suspension of Charles R. Massey Jr., M.D., of Fredericksburg
A panel of the Texas Medical Board reaffirmed an earlier panel’s suspension of the license of Charles R. Massey Jr., M.D., license number G5341, after determining that Dr. Massey’s continuation in the practice of medicine presents a continuing threat to the public welfare.
The temporary suspension hearing took place Friday, August 15, following a previous hearing, held on June 15, without notice. Dr. Massey was given notice of the August 15 hearing. He did not attend but a representative spoke on his behalf.
The action was based on the following findings:
Dr. Massey was the subject of an investigation based on a complaint that he was prescribing human growth hormone and other substances without medical necessity.
Board staff sent several subpoenas to Dr. Massey requesting the medical records of 13 specified patients, as well as various business records. Dr. Massey’s reply to the board stated: “I have reviewed the charts of the following patients…I find no prescribing irregularities or patient complaints.”
Dr. Massey also asked each of the 13 patients to be custodian of their own medical records and had them sign letters stating that they did not want their medical records reviewed by the Texas Medical Board. Finally, Dr. Massey sent a letter to the Board stating that he does not possess any of the items requested by Board staff.
On April 22, Board staff made an additional request that Dr. Massey provide the medical records and various business records per the subpoenas. Dr. Massey refused to produce the records.
The panel found that Dr. Massey’s intentional obstruction and/or interference with the Board’s investigation, through his refusal to produce records per subpoena, violate Board regulations and present a continuing threat to public safety.
The length of a temporary suspension is indefinite and it remains in effect until the board takes further action.
Edmund Chein, M.D. Revocation of DEA Registration and Denial of Application for Exporter’s Registration, 72 Fed. Reg. 6580 (February 12, 2007) (He also loses his medical license)
Edmund Chein of the Palm Springs Life Extension Institute
In a consolidated proceeding (Practitioner’s and Exporter’s Registrations), on November 7, 2001, DEA issued an Order to Show Cause and Notice of Immediate Suspension to Respondent on the ground that continued registration threatened the public health and safety. DEA issued another Order to Show Cause on May 24, 2002, which proposed to deny Respondent’s application for an exporter’s registration on the ground that registration would be inconsistent with the public interest. Respondent requested a hearing, conducted in three stages between January 28 and December 11, 2003. On July 28, 2005, the Administrative Law Judge recommended that DEA revoke Respondent’s practitioner’s registration and deny his application for an exporter’s registration.
The 2001 Order alleged that Respondent purchased controlled substances from illegitimate sources and re-distributed them without a legitimate medical purpose. Undercover operations revealed that Respondent prescribed human growth hormones and testosterone to patients before obtaining the results of necessary blood tests. Execution of a search warrant discovered that Respondent was in possession of numerous controlled substances without the appropriate purchase, use, and inventory records.
On June 29, 1998, the Medical Board of California initiated proceedings against Respondent that resulted in revocation of his state medical license. Once the Board revoked his license, Respondent sold the clinic to his sister, who held a valid registration. Despite the transfer in ownership, Respondent, without a state license, continued to run the clinic and direct employees in the handling and shipping of controlled substances. Respondent’s history of distributing controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and inadequate recordkeeping constituted conduct that threatened public health and safety. Consequently, DEA revoked Respondent’s registration because continued registration was inconsistent with the public interest. 21 U.S.C. §§ 823(f) and 824(a)(4).
The 2002 Order proposed to deny Respondent’s application for an exporter’s license because he had already engaged in exporting behavior illegally. On May 7, 2001, Respondent submitted an application for an exporter’s registration. The "application was not accepted for filing" and the filing fee was refunded. Respondent submitted a second application, which triggered an administrative inspection and investigation.
Respondent’s records indicated that he exported over 300 controlled substances to at least eleven countries without an exporter’s registration. Furthermore, some of the foreign shipments of controlled substances Respondent made violated international treaties. Respondent continued to export controlled substances after DEA notified him that it was illegal and even after receiving the Notice of Immediate Suspension. Respondent also imported two controlled substances from a Mexico pharmacy without an importer’s registration, in violation of 21 U.S.C. 957(a).
Respondent’s history of exporting controlled substances without the appropriate registration and his participation in the diversion of controlled substances constituted conduct that threatened public health and safety. Consequently, DEA denied Respondent’s application for an exporter’s registration as inconsistent with the public interest. 21 U.S.C. § 958(d).
Respondent claimed the DEA proceeding should be dismissed because the Office of Chief Counsel engaged in misconduct during the proceeding that required replacement with private counsel. Respondent alleged that a DEA employee committed perjury by certifying that she was the Acting Unit Chief of the Registration Unit although she no longer held that position on the day she signed the affidavit regarding the failure to process Respondent’s application. The position of the employee on the date of the declaration is immaterial because she conducted the investigation leading to the non-acceptance of the application and did not have the intent to deceive.
Respondent further alleged that the employee committed perjury by asserting that the first application was not accepted "for an unexplained reason." The first application was refunded because the office mistakenly believed he already had a DEA registration number. There is no mandatory duty to register an applicant and Respondent’s violations of federal law, revealed during investigation for the second application, support a finding that his first application would have been denied. Furthermore, Respondent did not demonstrate that he relied on any act or statement by DEA that would establish the materiality of the allegedly perjurious assertion. Both of Respondent’s challenges were without merit.
Contact: Casey McEnry Number: 415-436-7994
Southern California Doctor And Two Others Charged with Anabolic Steroid and Human Growth Hormone Distribution Indictment Alleges Importation of Human Growth Hormone from China for Distribution in the United States
APR 10 -- SAN JOSE – United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced that a federal grand jury in San Jose has indicted Dr. Ramon Scruggs, 60, of Tustin, California, Allan Danto, 54, of San Diego, California, and Heidi MacPherson, 39, of Laguna Niguel, California on counts of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering. In addition, Dr. Scruggs is also charged with four counts of distribution of anabolicsteroids and four counts of misbranding drugs held for sale with intent to defraud and mislead.
The indictment, which was returned under seal on March 6, 2008, was unsealed today. The conspiracy charge against all three defendants alleges that the defendants conspired to: (1) distribute anabolicsteroids in a manner which was outside the scope of professional medical practice, and not for a legitimate medical purpose; (2) smuggle human growth hormone into the United States in a manner contrary to law; and (3) misbrand drugs held for sale with intent to defraud and mislead.
According to the indictment, Dr. Scruggs was a physician who operated his medical practice at New Hope Health Center located in Costa Mesa, California. Under the name of New Hope Health Center, Scruggs and two employees in his office, Mr. Danto and Ms. McPherson, conspired to distribute anabolicsteroids, human growth hormone (“HGH”) and various other prescription drugs in a manner outside the usual course of practice, for non-legitimate purposes, including performance enhancement, aesthetic body improvement and other non-medical reasons.
The non-legitimate prescriptions written by Dr. Scruggs were forwarded to pharmacies both inside and outside the state of California, including Signature Pharmacy, in Orlando, Florida, and the drugs were subsequently delivered from the pharmacies to Dr. Scruggs’s clients throughout the United States, including the Northern District of California. At other times, syringes were pre-loaded with anabolicsteroids and sent directly from the New Hope Health Center to Dr. Scruggs’s clients.
The defendants are not in custody, and their initial appearances have not yet been scheduled.
The maximum statutory penalty for the count of conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and for each count of distribution of anabolicsteroids in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 is five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The maximum statutory penalty for each count of misbranding drugs held for sale with intent to defraud and mislead in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 331(k) and 333(b) is three years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.
The maximum statutory penalty for the count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956 and the count of money laundering in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956 is 20 years imprisonment and a $500,000 fine.
However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Matt Parrella, Jeff Nedrow, and Jeff Finigan are the Assistant United States Attorneys who are prosecuting the case with the assistance of Brenda Hodgen and Susan Kreider. The prosecution is the result of a four-year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.
Please note, an indictment contains only allegations against an individual and, as with all defendants, Dr. Scruggs, Mr. Danto, and Ms. McPherson must be presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The physician may not prescribe any form of androgenic steroids and/or human growth hormones.Effective August 31, 2005 the physician's medical license is limited precluding patient contact and any practice of medicine clinical or otherwise.
Misconduct Description:
The physician asserted that he could not successfully defend against the charges of negligence on more than one occasion and failure to maintain accurate records.
Sharon Dunn, (Bio)sdunn@greeleytribune.com January 26, 2008 Three Greeley doctors have been implicated in a nationwide steroid ring, and one pleaded guilty this week in an Alabama court.
Dr. Scott Corliss, a physician with the Greeley Medical Clinic, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Alabama to dispensing illegal steroids. As a part of his plea agreement, he agreed to turn over $12,000 he had received in proceeds from 2005-06. He faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
His plea agreement implicates Family Physicians Dr. Kenneth Olds and Dr. Kelly Tucker, who also faces a charge of sexual assault against a patient in a separate case. That charge was made in Weld District Court.
Olds refused to comment.
Officials at Greeley Medical Clinic would not comment about the case, but Dr. Dan Zenk, the center's president, e-mailed a prepared statement:
"The Greeley Medical Clinic learned today that Dr. Scott Corliss, a physician affiliated with our clinic, accepted a plea bargain concerning certain unlawful activities. The Greeley Medical Clinic emphasizes to the community that any illegal activity that involved Dr. Corliss occurred without the Greeley Medical Clinic's knowledge or approval, and was completely unauthorized in nature. Any type of illegal conduct is contrary to the Greeley Medical Clinic's values, mission and professional obligations to the health and well-being or our patients. We are investigating this matter further."
According to court documents, the doctors worked with Brett Branch, owner of Infinite Health in Eaton, and a sales representative for Applied Pharmacy Services Inc., a compounding pharmacy in Mobile, Ala., which court records state manufactured and sold anabolic steroids, HGH, and other drugs. A compounding pharmacy can custom-make prescriptions for individual patients.
Applied Pharmacy Services also was one of the pharmacies named in the recent Mitchell Report, in which former Sen. George Mitchell investigated rampant steroid use in Major League Baseball.
Contacted Friday, Branch said based on his attorney's advice, he could not comment about if he'd been charged or about his involvement in the case.
Tucker vehemently rejected his inclusion in the record of Corliss' guilty plea in Alabama. "That's false," he said.
"If Scott Corliss did something, that's not me," he said. When asked if he knew Branch, he paused, then he hung up the phone.
Court documents stated Branch "recruited customers at various gyms and sports clubs," and he received a percentage payment from Applied Pharmacy for each of the drugs dispensed to his customers. Branch approached the doctors in March or April 2005, court documents state, and he paid for Corliss and Tucker to attend the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine conference in May 2005 in Las Vegas.
Court documents stated Branch, who is not a doctor, would fax pre-printed prescription orders to Drs. Olds, Tucker and Corliss, along with his customers' blood test results. The customers would then see the doctors, who would then sign the prescription orders, court documents state. The prescriptions were for steroids such as Trenbolone, a bovine/equine steroid not approved for human use, and Human Growth Hormone. Court documents stated Branch would pay the doctors $100 for each prescription.
In September 2005, Branch asked Corliss and Tucker to become part owners of Infinite Health, an offer that only Tucker accepted, court documents state. A month later, court documents state, Corliss read an article that stated the growth hormone he and the others had been prescribing was illegal and brought it to Branch's and Tucker's attention. Court documents state that Tucker and Branch replied, "Because the physicians saw the patients and reviewed their blood work, the practice was legal."
Corliss' participation decreased then, but court documents state when Tucker became sick in February 2006, Branch asked Corliss to see patients normally referred to Tucker. Corliss agreed, court records state, detailing 11 incidents in which Corliss prescribed illegal steroids from February 2006 to May 9, 2006.
In September 2006, Corliss spoke with Drug Enforcement Agents. Court documents stated, "although the initial customers sent to him by Branch requested the anabolic steroids and HGH for 'anti-aging' treatment, Corliss began to doubt the legitimacy of the anti-aging justification."
Soon thereafter, Corliss sent a letter to Branch, ending his association with Infinite Health, court records state, then notified his partners and his employer of his conduct. Court records state he also turned himself in to the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners, which then admonished him.
According to the admonishment issued by the Board on May 18, 2007, Corliss saw 32 patients referred from Branch, and he prescribed steroids to at least 18 patients complaining about excess body fat. Corliss' license is still active, according to state records, but the Board threatened to suspend it if there were more complaints about him prescribing the drugs.
Corliss completed a three-day course on "Prescribing Controlled Drugs: Critical Issues and Common Pitfalls of Mis-Prescribing," the court records state.
Corliss joined the Greeley Medical Clinic in 1996 after serving for five years as associate director of the North Colorado Family Medicine residency in Greeley, and he has "special interests" in weight management and anti-aging concerns, according to the Greeley Medical Clinic's Web site.
It is not known at this time if Tucker, Olds or Branch also have been charged with wrongdoing. Officials with the U.S. District Attorney's office in the Southern District of Alabama did not return calls Friday.
BRANDON — While law enforcement silently pursued him in Palm Beach County, a heart doctor now charged with peddling steroids and growth hormones on the Internet tried to pump up business in this Tampa suburb by teaming with a former professional wrestler called Cyborg.
Dr. Robert G. Carlson and partner Kevin Donofrio of Brandon formed Florida Rejuvenation Institute in September, state corporation records show. Six months later, Carlson was arrested for his role at Palm Beach Rejuvenation Center, an alleged prescription mill in Jupiter that prosecutors say made millions prescribing steroids, testosterone and other potentially dangerous hormones through its Internet site without face-to-face examinations of patients.
Donofrio said Florida Rejuvenation Institute was founded in hopes of repeating the Jupiter company's success. He said he had no idea Carlson was being investigated. But six or eight weeks after the company was formed, Donofrio said he backed away from their enterprise.
"I realized he didn't really want to see patients face to face," Donofrio said. "They were into this Internet medicine business."
Carlson was arrested in February after a three-year national investigation of prescription drug sales on the Internet. Fourteen Floridians have been charged, plus seven more in Texas and New York.
Carlson, a 50-year-old former Eagle Scout, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of selling controlled substances. He has refused comment. His attorney, Thomas J. O'Hern of Albany, N.Y., would not answer written questions faxed to his Albany office. Carlson's former attorney has said more prescriptions were written with Carlson's name that the doctor had signed.
A professional wrestler for seven years, 44-year-old Donofrio now operates Partners in Wellness, a string of health clubs and clinics providing primary care, physical rehabilitation and pain management. He touts himself as a five-time All-American in Greco-Roman and freestyle wrestling and a Coastal USA Body Building Champion. He also has coached high school wrestlers.
It was through wrestling that Donofrio met Carlson's brother-in-law, Joseph Raich, a longtime booster of amateur wrestling, as well as the wrestling team at Jupiter Christian School, and vice president of Palm Beach Rejuvenation. When investigators raided the company's headquarters in February, Chris Ruh, son of the high school's wrestling coach, was working there, court records show.
Ruh has not been charged, nor have authorities publicly stated that he is under investigation. Raich has not been charged, but prosecutors call him an unindicted co-conspirator. He has hired a criminal defense lawyer.
Their connections to the company and the wrestling team prompted the Florida High School Athletic Association to open an inquiry into the wrestling program. A year ago, Jupiter Christian became the smallest school ever to win a state wrestling title in Florida.
"My main reason was I heard they were the number one company in the world," Donofrio said of his interest in Palm Beach Rejuvenation. "I'd always known success leaves clues. I figured if they're the No. 1 company in the world, in terms of producing volume, they must do it right, you would think. Like the number one football team, they must have the best players, right?"
Because Donofrio already had medical facilities in Brandon, he said he started the company with about $20,000, some of it spent on advertising. They launched Florida Rejuvenation with a couple of public seminars featuring Carlson, a trim-and-fit heart surgeon who hails the benefits of hormones in combating the common effects of aging: weight gain and the loss of sexual libido and energy.
The two seminars drew 230 prospects, Donofrio said, with 40 later meeting face to face with Carlson. But after that, Donofrio said, Carlson told him he didn't want to see patients. He said the doctor, whose practice and home are an hour's drive away in Sarasota, wanted patients' laboratory test results faxed or e-mailed to him rather than having him personally examine patients seeking prescriptions. Carlson insisted it was legal, Donofrio claims.
"That was kind of when a red light went off and I said, 'Nah, I'm not doing that. I'm not getting into that kind of business,'''' Donofrio said.
The law in New York, where Carlson was charged, prohibits doctors from writing prescriptions without face-to-face visits. Florida law has a similar prohibition, with a few exceptions for emergencies and other circumstances.
Doctors at Donofrio's other medical clinics, he said, spend 11/2 hours with each patient, followed by a nutritionist spending an hour with the patient. Only then, he said, are prescriptions written.
"Carlson is a brilliant doctor," Donofrio said. "He's no dummy. The guy is well-educated, but I can't feel good about having my customers, whom I've worked 20 years for, faxing their labs to Sarasota or to Palm Beach for review and not having face-to-face contact with the physician."
A lack of face-to-face contact is central to the charges brought in New York against Carlson and Palm Beach Rejuvenation employees Glenn and George Stephanos, brothers who also have pleaded not guilty to drug charges.
"It's sad," Donofio said. "These guys, they're out there making millions, but I don't know what'll happen to them. But I can sleep at night."
While awaiting trial, Carlson continues his cardiac practice from a third-floor suite in Sarasota. Tacked on the door along with his name is a sign for Palm Beach Rejuvenation of Sarasota, a business he formed six weeks before opening Florida Rejuvenation Institute with Donofrio. Carlson's pitch on his Sarasota company's Web site: "You need hormone replacement for a better quality of life."Donofrio said that, to his knowledge, Carlson never wrote prescriptions for Florida Rejuvenation Institute patients without a face-to-face examination. He said the company was dissolved in late 2006, right after his falling out with Carlson. Told that state records show the company remained in active status, Donofrio produced the copy of a check to the state as well as a state form he signed to dissolve the company. The check was dated March 29, the same day he was interviewed about the company by The Palm Beach Post.
"It was an oversight," he said, when asked why the form and fee weren't filed earlier.
Sitting in his second-floor office at The Athletic Club, his newly renovated health club in Brandon, Donofrio was surrounded by reminders of his days as Cyborg: dozens of photos, from Hulk Hogan to an autographed picture of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, a former University of Miami football player who became a wrestler and now stars in action films.
There's also a picture of Eddie Guerrero, a wrestling star who died young. The death certificate for Guerrero, who was 38 when he died in 2005, listed an enlarged heart caused by steroid use as a contributing factor.
The picture is a reminder of why Donofrio says he won't help anyone seeking steroids or human growth hormone to boost athletic performance. Donofrio recalled the parents of an athlete who had shoulder surgery asking for human growth hormone to speed up the healing.
"I said, 'Absolutely not. The guy's 16 years old. He's got plenty of hormones,'''' Donofrio said. "I make it very clear to people: We're not in business for athletic performance. We're in business to give people therapy that need it."
Donofrio has remained involved in youth athletics by volunteering as an assistant coach and fund-raiser for the Brandon High School wrestling team, whose winning dynasty is among the greatest in the nation. The Eagles have a 34-year winning streak of 439 dual matches and have won 18 state championships, including the past seven. Because of its size, the school doesn't compete in the same classification as Jupiter Christian.
"I needed somebody to work with my heavyweights, and so I took him on," Brandon coach Russ Cozart said of Donofrio. "He worked with my heavyweights for three years and did a great job. He was always there for the kids."
Demands of his businesses caused him to miss this past season at Brandon High, but Donofrio said he hopes to return soon.Donofrio added to his business interests in November, forming Infinite Vitality of Brandon, part of a chain of hormone replacement clinics with offices in Tampa and Beverly Hills, Calif. Carlson is not involved, he said.
"We have been led to believe that the changes that occur to our bodies with age are inevitable," Infinite Vitality says on its Web site. "In fact, many of these changes can be minimized or prevented by recent advances in the field of Age Management Medicine."
Infinite Vitality is a "very reputable" hormone-replacement firm, Donofrio said, that requires face-to-face examinations with its physicians. "We're not going to get rich, but we're going to help people and I'm going to continue to help people in the health and fitness industry," Donofrio said. "That's what I got in it for."
Staff researcher Sammy Alzofon contributed to this story.
Name:
LEVINE, Howard J., MD
City, State:
Seattle, WA
Date of Arrest:
06/26/2007
Date of Conviction:
02/19/2008
Judicial Status:
Pled Guilty
Conviction:
Distribution of a controlled substance
DEA Registration:
Retired 03/23/2007
Remarks:
Howard J. Levine, MD, age 58, of Seattle, WA, pled guilty in federal court to one count of distribution of a controlled substance. According to court documents, Levine unlawfully, knowingly and intentionally distributed, dispensed, and possessed with the intent to distribute, substances containing nandrolone decanoate gel and testosterone gel which are anabolic steroids and Schedule III controlled substances, and that Levine acted outside the scope of professional practice in distributing the controlled substance.
Levine was sentenced to 22 months in federal prison followed by supervised release for a term of three (3) years.
Name:
SHORTT, James M., MD
City, State:
W. Columbia, SC
Date of Arrest:
10/12/2005
Date of Conviction:
07/17/2006
Judicial Status:
Pled Guilty
Conviction:
Conspiracy to Distribute Anabolic Steroids and Human Growth Hormone
DEA Registration:
Surrendered 1/31/06
Remarks:
James Shortt, MD, age 46, of West Columbia, South Carolina, pled guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and human growth hormone. He was sentenced to 12 months and one day imprisonment, to be followed by two years of supervised release.
Shortt has filed an appeal to the sentencing in this case.
Edmund Chein, M.D. Revocation of Registration and Denial of Application for Exporter’s Registration, 72 Fed. Reg. 6580 (February 12, 2007)
In a consolidated proceeding (Practitioner’s and Exporter’s Registrations), on November 7, 2001, DEA issued an Order to Show Cause and Notice of Immediate Suspension to Respondent on the ground that continued registration threatened the public health and safety. DEA issued another Order to Show Cause on May 24, 2002, which proposed to deny Respondent’s application for an exporter’s registration on the ground that registration would be inconsistent with the public interest. Respondent requested a hearing, conducted in three stages between January 28 and December 11, 2003. On July 28, 2005, the Administrative Law Judge recommended that DEA revoke Respondent’s practitioner’s registration and deny his application for an exporter’s registration.
The 2001 Order alleged that Respondent purchased controlled substances from illegitimate sources and re-distributed them without a legitimate medical purpose. Undercover operations revealed that Respondent prescribed human growth hormones and testosterone to patients before obtaining the results of necessary blood tests. Execution of a search warrant discovered that Respondent was in possession of numerous controlled substances without the appropriate purchase, use, and inventory records.
On June 29, 1998, the Medical Board of California initiated proceedings against Respondent that resulted in revocation of his state medical license. Once the Board revoked his license, Respondent sold the clinic to his sister, who held a valid registration. Despite the transfer in ownership, Respondent, without a state license, continued to run the clinic and direct employees in the handling and shipping of controlled substances. Respondent’s history of distributing controlled substances in violation of the Controlled Substances Act and inadequate recordkeeping constituted conduct that threatened public health and safety. Consequently, DEA revoked Respondent’s registration because continued registration was inconsistent with the public interest. 21 U.S.C. §§ 823(f) and 824(a)(4).
The 2002 Order proposed to deny Respondent’s application for an exporter’s license because he had already engaged in exporting behavior illegally. On May 7, 2001, Respondent submitted an application for an exporter’s registration. The "application was not accepted for filing" and the filing fee was refunded. Respondent submitted a second application, which triggered an administrative inspection and investigation.
Respondent’s records indicated that he exported over 300 controlled substances to at least eleven countries without an exporter’s registration. Furthermore, some of the foreign shipments of controlled substances Respondent made violated international treaties. Respondent continued to export controlled substances after DEA notified him that it was illegal and even after receiving the Notice of Immediate Suspension. Respondent also imported two controlled substances from a Mexico pharmacy without an importer’s registration, in violation of 21 U.S.C. 957(a).
Respondent’s history of exporting controlled substances without the appropriate registration and his participation in the diversion of controlled substances constituted conduct that threatened public health and safety. Consequently, DEA denied Respondent’s application for an exporter’s registration as inconsistent with the public interest. 21 U.S.C. § 958(d).
Respondent claimed the DEA proceeding should be dismissed because the Office of Chief Counsel engaged in misconduct during the proceeding that required replacement with private counsel. Respondent alleged that a DEA employee committed perjury by certifying that she was the Acting Unit Chief of the Registration Unit although she no longer held that position on the day she signed the affidavit regarding the failure to process Respondent’s application. The position of the employee on the date of the declaration is immaterial because she conducted the investigation leading to the non-acceptance of the application and did not have the intent to deceive.
Respondent further alleged that the employee committed perjury by asserting that the first application was not accepted "for an unexplained reason." The first application was refunded because the office mistakenly believed he already had a DEA registration number. There is no mandatory duty to register an applicant and Respondent’s violations of federal law, revealed during investigation for the second application, support a finding that his first application would have been denied. Furthermore, Respondent did not demonstrate that he relied on any act or statement by DEA that would establish the materiality of the allegedly perjurious assertion. Both of Respondent’s challenges were without merit.
Journal Medical Writer Providence Journal - Providence,RI,USA
The Health Department has put on probation the medical license of Dr. Nomate Toate Kpea, a dermatologist with five practices around the state, and has required Kpea to undergo a competency evaluation.
The state Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline found that Kpea misdiagnosed benign lesions as cancer and performed needless surgery, failed to completely remove a skin cancer, failed to properly train and supervise his advanced practice clinicians (nurse practitioners and physician assistants), advertised “with a tendency to deceive,” and prescribed human growth hormone without adequate evaluation of the patients.
In one case, the board found, an advanced practice clinician in Kpea’s office misidentified a skin lesion that was later found to be malignant melanoma, a form of skin cancer that can be deadly if not diagnosed early.
Probation is a level of discipline that is stronger than a reprimand but less severe than a license suspension. Kpea can continue to practice, but he has agreed not to perform a method of skin-cancer removal known as Mohs surgery until he has completed his competency evaluation and undergone any training the evaluators recommend.
Kpea’s practice, called Skin Medicine USA or Skin Medicine and Cosmetic Surgery Centers, included offices in Warwick, Providence, North Smithfield, Newport and Narragansett, as well as several out of state. Kpea, 54, is well known in the community. According to a recent news report, he is also the “paramount chief” of a town in Nigeria that was founded and ruled by his family.
Dr. Robert S. Crausman, the medical board’s chief administrative officer, said that the board had complaints against Kpea dating to 2000, but only the more recent ones clearly violated medical standards.
Many of the findings focused on his use of the Mohs precision cutting tool, which allows surgeons to remove skin cancer without harming healthy tissue. In one case, Kpea misdiagnosed squamous cell carcinoma and performed Mohs surgery on a patient. The patient actually had a benign skin lesion called an actinic keratosis. In another case, nonmalignant lesions were misdiagnosed as cancer. Having needless surgery can leave a patient with unnecessary scars, Crausman said.
In another instance mentioned in the board’s report, Kpea “performed an incomplete excision and missed an obvious tumor at the lowest level excised.”
In two other cases, Kpea prescribed human growth hormone to a patient diagnosed with a deficiency of the hormone and to another with short stature. The board concluded that Kpea “was not using this medication for its purported anti-aging effect,” which would have been a violation of Food and Drug Administration regulations. But it did find that he did not adequately evaluate the patients before prescribing.
Additionally, the board found, Kpea too frequently used frozen biopsies to quickly diagnose a condition and proceed immediately to Mohs surgery; it is better practice in most instances to send samples to a laboratory and wait for a diagnosis from a pathologist, Crausman said.
His advertisements had a “tendency to deceive,” Crausman said, because they led patients to believe they would be seen by a doctor, only to discover after they arrived that a physician assistant or nurse practitioner would do the exam.
Kpea has agreed to undergo a skills and competency evaluation by the Colorado Center for Personalized Education for Physicians, and complete any additional training and evaluation that the board recommends based on the Colorado findings. Meanwhile, he must not practice Mohs surgery.
Kpea also must now have all biopsy specimens read by a board-certified pathologist or dermatopathologist.
Additionally, the board has required that all advanced practice clinicians at his offices be supervised at least a half day a week by Kpea or an appropriately trained physician, meet weekly with a physician to review cases, and meet monthly for training.
Kpea must also pay an administrative fee of $2,500.
Neither Kpea nor his lawyer returned phone calls yesterday.
'Grandmotherly' Santi wrote thousands of prescriptions
By Dan Connolly |Sun reporter
November 3, 2007
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Short and stout, with gray ringlets of hair framing a round, bespectacled face, Ana Maria Santi looks the part of a doting grandmother.
Instead, the 68-year-old disgraced doctor from Queens, N.Y., has become the most unlikely face of a national steroid ring that reportedly involved Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons, among others.
Yesterday, in federal court here, Santi received a two-year jail sentence, plus one year of house confinement and two additional years of supervised probation for issuing thousands of prescriptions for human growth hormone and other illegal steroids to clients she never examined. She also has to forfeit $24,340 she made from a New Jersey company as part of the scam and repay $19,205 to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island, which had reimbursed customers who received the illegal drugs.
"She may have a grandmotherly face, but her actions certainly were not grandmotherly," said Adi Goldstein, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case. "She committed the serious crimes of writing prescriptions for steroids and hGH. She had customers, not patients."
Santi, dressed in a blue prison jumpsuit, sat quietly in the courtroom but occasionally turned to her two adult sons, waved and smiled. When asked by U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith whether she wanted to make a comment for the record, she said: "No, your honor. Thank you very much, and I am sorry for what I did."
According to a federal investigation in Rhode Island of Internet drug operations - which is separate but similar to the ongoing state investigation in Albany, N.Y. - Santi admitted using the name and prescription number of a dying former co-worker for at least five years. She did so despite having her medical license revoked in 1999 and "without ever meeting, diagnosing, speaking to or observing" her clients, Goldstein told the court yesterday.
From 2005 to 2006, Goldstein said Santi earned $125,000 for the forged signatures.
"She committed this offense with a stroke of a pen and a push of a fax button from her home," Goldstein said.
Furthermore, she said Santi recruited fellow New York City doctor Victor Mariani, a former medical school classmate of Santi's in Argentina, to participate in the scam. Mariani, 73, was sentenced yesterday to one year of home confinement, two additional years of supervised probation, a $6,000 fine and forfeiture of $34,485 in earnings. Unlike Santi, who had a history of previous insurance fraud, Mariani was a first-time offender and was considered "not as culpable" as Santi, Goldstein said.
Mariani said at the sentencing hearing that he believed someone was examining and diagnosing patients - presumably Santi - but admitted to never seeing them himself.
He and Santi signed the majority of their prescriptions for American Pharmaceutical Group, which was run by co-defendant Daniel McGlone out of his kitchen and home office in North New Brunswick, N.J.
McGlone, according to court documents, found prospective clients through various methods, including magazine advertisements that targeted bodybuilders. He paid doctors $25 for each steroid/hGH prescription, then had the prescriptions filled by compound pharmacies, such as the federally raided Signature Pharmacy in Orlando, Fla. According to court documents, McGlone made approximately $860,000 in profit from individual clients and pharmacies. He is awaiting sentencing in Rhode Island federal court in February.
Santi and the principal ownership of Signature are among those charged by the Albany County District Attorney's office, which made headlines earlier this year with a series of steroids raids in Florida. Santi has pleaded guilty in Albany and is awaiting sentencing, while the Signature group is awaiting trial there.
Santi and Mariani were facing harsher penalties under federal sentencing guidelines yesterday, but Judge Smith took into consideration the defendants' age and health. Yet Smith said it was important to "send a message to the medical community that ... this is a very serious offense, and the court values it as such."
Goldstein, the federal prosecutor, said it's important to expose the steroid rings as much wider in scope than athletes looking for an edge. In Rhode Island, she said, the investigation uncovered at least 20 individuals who had ordered a total of 4,000 units of hGH.
"This extends beyond professional athletes and goes beyond the doors of gyms as well," she said. "People are using this for anti-aging, for weight loss. Not just as performance enhancers."
Because doctors such as Santi and Mariani did not know the previous medical or psychological histories of those receiving the drugs, some recipients possessed significant risk factors, including a man who later was charged with the brutal beating of a Rhode Island state trooper, she said.
As for athletes, Goldstein would not confirm whether any NFL or Major League Baseball players received drugs prescribed by yesterday's defendants.
"That's not something I am willing to comment about," she said. "And I probably wouldn't know it if they were."
However, SI.com previously reported that Gibbons received shipments of hGH and anabolic steroids from South Beach Rejuvenation Center in Miami Beach - and filled by Signature Pharmacy - from 2003 to 2005. According to SI.com, one of the prescribing physicians in the Gibbons case was "A. Almarashi," the alias used by Santi.
"A. Almarashi," the name of a now-deceased former co-worker of Santi's, also was the signature on prescriptions for Genotropin allegedly sent to Jerry Hairston Jr., a Texas Rangers infielder-outfielder, by an Alabama-based compound pharmacy in 2004, according to SI.com.
Hairston and Gibbons were Orioles teammates from 2001 to 2004. Hairston has denied that he received or used illegal performance enhancers. Gibbons has refused comment on the story since it was reported in September, except to say that he has cooperated with MLB in its investigation of the matter.
Santi, an anesthesiologist, first had her medical license suspended in 1994 after problems with alcohol. She had it revoked in 1999, the same year she was involved with a liposuction case that resulted in the death of the patient.
She also had at least one prior conviction for insurance fraud, said Edward C. Roy, her attorney in Rhode Island.
"What has befallen her is alcohol," Roy said. "When she is not drinking, she is a great person."
As a child, Roy said his client was "smuggled out of Poland" to England during World War II, and her family later relocated to Argentina. There, he said, she went to medical school and became a doctor, a difficult task for a woman of her era.
Eventually she was forced out of her profession and turned to the prescription scam to survive financially.
"She is remorseful, I'll tell you that," Roy said. "The fact is she is such a brilliant person and achieved a lot in her life and then lost all of those achievements because of alcoholism."
October 14, 2007 -- An Upper East Side doctor caught writing steroid and growth-hormone prescriptions for patients of a Florida clinic linked to a baseball slugger has had her license suspended.
Dr. Barbara Nichols apparently never met the 11 patients for whom she prescribed human growth hormone, testosterone and other drugs in 2002. They were patients of an Internet business called Modern Therapy based in Miami Beach, according to state documents.
Modern Therapy, also known as South Beach Rejuvenation Center, allegedly hooked up Baltimore Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons with human growth hormone and steroids, according to recent published reports.
Pat Courtney, a spokesman for Major League Baseball, told The Post that MLB has an ongoing investigation into Gibbons and his association with Modern Therapy.
HGH and testosterone are considered performance-enhancing drugs and are banned in baseball and other sports.
Nichols, 57, reviewed records provided by Modern Therapy and prescribed the drugs. She failed to adequately evaluate and treat the patients and prescribed the drugs without medical need, according to the charges against her by the state Board for Professional Medical Conduct.
The board accused Nichols of 68 acts of misconduct.
She signed a consent agreement with the board, which requires her to pay a $10,000 fine and to stop practicing medicine for three months. She can no longer prescribe controlled substances and hormones.
Nichols did not return calls seeking comment.
Nichols worked for the city Sanitation Department for the last 10 years, earning $105 an hour to do pre-employment and other exams for the department, but did not treat workers or write prescriptions, said Kathy Dawkins, a department spokeswoman. She gave notice in mid-September that she would be quitting, Dawkins said.
Nichols, who lives on East 90th Street, has been in trouble before. She pleaded guilty in 1993 in federal court to willful failure to file income-tax returns. She also filed for bankruptcy protection twice in the 1990s.
Improperly taking HGH - which is legitimately prescribed to help short children grow - can cause the organs to enlarge, and its use is linked to diabetes and high blood pressure.
Attorney General Hardy Myers has obtained a default judgment from Washington County Circuit Court against Dr. Thomas Holeman of Milwaukie, one of two Oregon medical doctors named in a 2003 lawsuit filed by the Oregon Department of Justice. Myers' office sued Dr. Holeman and his partner, Dr. Steven Gabriel Moos (pronounced Moss) of Tigard, for allegedly violating state consumer protection laws in the unlawful sale and promotion of prescription drugs. Myers obtained a similar default judgment against Moos in June 2004 and both physicians are thought to have fled the country.
"Medical doctors who put economic gain before the safety of their patients should be punished to the fullest extent of the law," Myers said. "Both physicians violated the public trust and that could not be allowed to continue."
Named in last week's court order is Dr. Thomas Holeman, who practiced at Dr. Moos' Frontier Medical Clinic in Tigard. Both Holeman and Moos are now under similar Washington Court ordered default judgments that include permanent injunctions prohibiting them from being in the business of selling prescription drugs, non-prescription drugs, or nutritional supplements.
The 2003 Justice lawsuit, filed against both defendants, alleged that the physicians had violated state consumer protection laws by charging patients for prescription drugs that were actually free samples provided by drug manufacturers; and by prescribing and selling Human Growth Hormone (HGH) as a "harmless panacea for the effects of aging," when, in fact, the FDA has not found it to be safe and effective for that purpose. Moreover, the HGH sold was illegally imported from China and not approved for sale in the United States. The lawsuit also alleged that the doctors illegally advertised and sold "Viaglide," a product advertised as a female arousal cream over the Internet claiming it contained the same active ingredient found in Viagra when, in fact, it did not. The doctors sold "Viaglide" without prescriptions or without examining or taking medical histories from users.
The 2004 judgments also require the defendants to reimburse all purchasers of HGH, "Viaglide," and re-packaged "free" samples. Dr. Moos is required to pay the Justice $400,000 in civil penalties and more than $11,000 in costs. Dr. Holeman is required to pay Justice $300,000 in civil penalties and $16,426 in costs. Dr. Moos, who originated the fraudulent schemes, was assessed a larger civil penalty but Dr. Holeman, who aggressively fought for months to have the lawsuit dismissed, was assessed more in costs.
The Oregon Board of Medical Examiners (BME) initially referred the case to Oregon Justice. The BME had placed Dr. Moos on ten years of probation in 2000 for problems associated with advertising and selling prescription drugs over the Internet. The Board subsequently became aware of additional misconduct by Moos as a result of his criminal indictment in Washington County for unlawful drug use and a criminal investigation in California related to practicing medicine without a license.
Moos's medical license was permanently suspended by BME in April 2003. After Oregon's lawsuit was filed, Moos was federally indicted June 3, 2004 for criminal violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act and subsequently left the United States. Dr. Holeman's medical license was revoked in October 2004 by the BME and his lawyer claims that he is traveling abroad in an unknown country.
Attorney General Myers praised the Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigation for its "significant assistance" with the investigation leading up to the lawsuit and described the case outcome as "a perfect example of successful interagency cooperation." Oregon and the FDA are members of the International Interagency Health Products Fraud Steering Committee that promotes multi-agency cooperation in the prosecution of health fraud.
Consumers wanting more information on this case may call the Attorney General's consumer hotline at (503) 378-4320 (Salem area only), (503) 229-5576 (Portland area only) or toll-free at 1-877-877-9392. Justice is online at www.doj.state.or.us.
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