Nassau Doctor Pleads Guilty To Federal Drug Dealing Charges

ROSLYN, NY — A former medical doctor who ran a practice in Roslyn pleaded guilty under a deal with prosecutors in federal court Monday to planning to unlawfully sell powerful and highly addictive prescription painkillers.

Tameshwar Ammar, 52, of Amityville, pleaded guilty via teleconference in federal court in Central Islip, prosecutors said. He was indicted in November and relinquished his license to practice medicine last month. As part of his plea deal, Ammar agreed to forfeit about $246,000 in proceeds involved in the oxycodone crime. He faces up to 20 years in prison when he's sentenced.

When he was initially charged, a woman who answered the phone at Age Management Associates in Roslyn confirmed to Patch that Ammar ran the practice, though the practice didn't comment on the accusations.

Between 2013 and 2019, Ammar unlawfully prescribed thousands of oxycodone pills to two people, prosecutors said. Ammar's medical records for the two people showed Ammar doled out the prescriptions without any diagnostic proof that either had a legitimate medical reason to take the drugs.

Ammar prescribed oxycodone pills to one of the people knowing he planned to sell the pills to others, prosecutors said. In the other case, In addition, Ammar continued prescribing oxycodone and methadone to the person even after learning that person had been admitted to a mental health facility in 2018. That person died of a drug overdose the following year caused by oxycodone, methadone and ketamine.

Ammar received a court-order to surrender his DEA registration following his arrest.

"Today’s guilty plea establishes that the defendant, who was a doctor, essentially acted as a drug dealer, spreading injury and addiction without regard for the consequences," Seth DuCharme, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a news release. "This Office and our partners at the DEA are working tirelessly to combat the opioid epidemic on Long Island and elsewhere, including by prosecuting medical professionals who betray their oath to do no harm."

Ray Donovan, special agent-in-charge at the New York division of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Ammar’s plea showed he was motivated by "greed, not the welfare and health of his patients."

"Instead of healing, he chose a dangerous path of causing addiction, overdose, and overwhelming suffering to many," Donovan said.