Rochester Hills Pharmacist Jailed For 52 Months

ROCHESTER Hills, MI — A Rochester Hills pharmacist was sentenced recently to 52 months in prison for participating in a conspiracy to distribute prescription pills, health care fraud and money laundering. Nadeem Iqbal, 56, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert H. Cleland, according to United States Attorney’s Office Eastern District of Michigan.

Iqbal pled guilty on November 28, 2016, to felony counts of illegal prescription drug distribution, health care fraud and money laundering. The convictions arose from the operation of two pharmacies located in Detroit — Krauzer’s Pharmacy (a dba for Friends Pharmacy) and Minal Pharmacy.

According to evidence submitted to the court in connection with the defendant’s guilty plea and sentencing, Iqbal was the beneficial owner and operator of the two pharmacies during 2009-2010, when the illegal activity occurred. He knowingly filled controlled substance prescriptions for “runners,” who presented as many as 25 prescriptions at a time for “patients.”

The runners only wanted the controlled substances, but did not care whether they received the non-controlled drugs for the purported patients. Iqbal offered to take back and did not dispense many of the non-controlled medications prescribed with the controlled substances.

However, he insisted on maintaining ratio of 70% non-controlled drug prescriptions to 30% controlled substance prescriptions, so as not to draw unnecessary attention to his pharmacies. For some patients, the pharmacist selected up to eight additional non-controlled prescriptions to be billed to Medicare but not dispensed.

The prescriptions selected by the pharmacy were then faxed to the doctor’s office to be placed in the patient’s files, in case of an audit. The defendant admitted that he illegally distributed over 222,000 dosage units of controlled substances and fraudulently obtained at least $1,619,471.67 from the federal Medicare program.

He also laundered $150,000 of proceeds in a single transaction. Oxycontin, oxycodone, and hydrocodone are controlled substances that may be dispensed by a pharmacist only for a legitimate medical purpose. All pharmacists have a corresponding responsibility to act in good faith to determine whether a doctor’s prescribing is within the course of legitimate medical practice.

A pharmacist cannot continue to fill controlled substance prescriptions when they have reason to believe that the doctor prescribing the drugs is not legitimate. These powerful and addictive drugs in the opioid class are easily abused, and can lead to addiction and eventual heroin use.

“More people die in America every year from prescription drug overdoses than from overdoses of all other drugs combined,” Acting U.S. Attorney Daniel Lemisch said. “In addition, prescription drug addiction has led to resurgence in heroin use. Pharmacists who participate in the diversion of prescription drugs to the street market are contributing to this epidemic, and we are focusing our enforcement efforts on stopping them.”

“Corrupt health care providers only facilitate the serious health consequences that can result from a patient’s inappropriate prescription drug use” said Lamont Pugh III, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Office of Inspector General – Chicago Region. “Pharmacists who deviate from their professional obligations in pursuit of individual financial gain will be held accountable. The detection, investigation and prevention of health care fraud involving prescription drugs in Federal healthcare programs is a top priority of the OIG.”

Iqbal’s case was related to 44 defendants named in a multi-count second superseding indictment unsealed in March of 2013. Six doctors and four additional pharmacists were convicted, either by guilty plea or at trial.

Iqbal will face state action against his pharmacy license as a result of his convictions. He will be barred from participating in the federal Medicare program for at least five years. He agreed to forfeit $1,422,020.58 in proceeds that was seized from his investment account.

The investigation in this case was handled by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, the Department of Treasury Internal Revenue Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Photo by Darren McCollester / Staff / Getty Images News/ Getty Images