Manhattan doctors allegedly took big bribes to push millions of dollars worth of 'highly addictive' opioid spray
The lucrative scam enjoyed by five Upper East Side doctors included six-figure kickbacks and more: Cocaine, booze, strippers and weed, prosecutors charge.
The lucrative scam enjoyed by five Upper East Side doctors included six-figure kickbacks and more: Cocaine, booze, strippers and weed, prosecutors charge. The sordid details were spelled out Friday in a federal indictment charging the quintet with collecting huge sham speaking fees as payback for over-prescribing a highly-addictive fetanyl spray. The benefits for Drs. Gordon Freedman and Todd Schlifstein included an October 2013 strip club extravaganza where a senior pharmaceutical exec spent $4,100 on liquor and lap dances, officials charged. Freedman, a certified pain management practitioner, collected more than $300,000 in phony fees from pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics, according to court papers. FDNY firefighter pleads not guilty to selling fentanyl In the last three months of 2014 alone, the 57-year-old Mount Kisco resident then wrote $1.1 million of prescriptions for the spray, authorities charged. “These prominent doctors swore a solemn oath to place their patients’ care above all else,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. “Instead, they engaged in a malignant scheme to prescribe fentanyl ... in exchange for bribes in the form of speakers fees.”
All five pleaded not guilty, and were expected to walk free after posting a $200,000 personal recognizance bond. Investigators find $100G worth of fentanyl wrapped in fish filets The so-called speakers programs, pitched as educating other doctors with a slideshow about the spray, were often just parties hosted at pricey restaurants, officials charged. Schlifstein was so bombed at some of the events that he slurred his words, and co-defendant Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein smoked pot and snorted cocaine before or during his appearances, the 75-page indictment charged. In addition to Friedman, the doctors were identified as Goldstein, 48, of New Rochelle; Schlifstein, 49, of Manhattan; Dialecti Voudouris, 47, of Queens; and Alexandru Burducea, 41, also of Queens. “We look for to a resolution of the charges in his favor,” said Burducea’s lawyer Nicholas Kaizer. Cuomo looks to add 11 fentanyl types to controlled substance list Prosecutors also revealed that a pair of pharmaceutical salesmen cooperated in the case against the physicians. Insys did not return a call for comment. Kaynak:Nydailynews