Bellerose Resident Accused In Oxycodone Scripts For Cash Scheme: Feds

BELLEROSE, NY — Federal authorities said a Nassau County resident helped to destroy lives in the face of a nationwide opioid epidemic.

Feroze Nazirbage of Bellerose is accused of working with Mordechai Bar, a Larchmont physician, to illegally divert oxycodone and other controlled substances.

Both Bar and Nazirbage were arrested on Wednesday and were presented Thursday in White Plains federal court, said Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Frank A. Tarentino III, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration; Naomi Gruchacz, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; James Smith, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI; and Thomas Fattorusso, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the IRS, Criminal Investigation.

"As alleged, these two healthcare professionals, who illegally diverted the highly addictive oxycodone for cash had a responsibility of protecting patients’ lives, not destroying them," Tarentino said in an announcement. "The DEA will relentlessly pursue those individuals responsible for putting profits and greed over the health of their patients."

Prosecutors said Nazirbage is affiliated with several pharmacies in the region, including F&N Pharmacy in the Bronx, of which he is the president, and QV Pharmacy in Queens, where law enforcement said he has been observed working and directing customers.

According to DOJ court filings, Bar began selling prescriptions to a confidential source around 2012, when the source was told by a friend that the friend was getting prescriptions from Bar and the friend thought Bar would write prescriptions for the confidential source as well. From January 2023 to May 3o, 2024, Bar conspired with others to provide prescriptions for oxycodone, amphetamine, and alprazolam in exchange for cash payments, prosecutors said. Bar issued those prescriptions without conducting medical examinations of the patients and, in many cases, without even speaking to or meeting with the patients, according to federal officials.

Several of the illegal prescriptions that Bar wrote were sent to QV Pharmacy, the DEA investigation found. From December 2022 to May 30, 2024, prosecutors say Nazirbage conspired with others to illegally dispense or distribute oxycodone and other controlled substances, in exchange for cash. In addition to filling prescriptions that he knew were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose by a practitioner acting within the usual course of professional practice, he also repeatedly sold controlled substances to a customer without a prescription in what is known as a "backdoor sale," according to court filings. During one of those sales, Nazirbage gave a customer a handwritten menu of various prescription drugs and their per-pill cost for future backdoor sales, federal authorities said.

"As alleged, Dr. Mordechai Bar and Feroze Nazirbage breached the trust that was placed in them to prescribe and dispense controlled substances only for legitimate medical purposes," Williams said. "They allegedly used their positions as healthcare professionals as a cover for what amounted to no more than common drug dealing operations. We will not tolerate the illegal sale of oxycodone and other addictive substances into the community, whether those sales take place on the street corner, at a doctor’s office, or behind a pharmacy counter."

50-year-old Nazirbage, of Bellerose, is charged with one count of conspiring to illegally dispense or distribute oxycodone and other controlled substances, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, and 11 counts of dispensing or distributing oxycodone and other controlled substances, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

71-year-old Bar, of Larchmont, was charged with one count of conspiring to illegally dispense or distribute oxycodone and other controlled substances, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, and 12 counts of dispensing or distributing oxycodone and other controlled substances, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

"This physician and pharmacy owner are alleged to have illegally distributed controlled substances, which is behavior that could contribute to the ongoing opioid epidemic," Gruchacz said. "HHS-OIG works with our law enforcement partners to ensure that individuals involved in fraud schemes that exploit federal health care programs and threaten patient safety are held accountable."

Anyone who believes they have information relevant to this investigation should contact DEA Victim/Witness Coordinator James Lee at this email address and/or call (646) 529-4042.