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.
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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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