{"id":51053,"date":"2022-10-08T19:09:23","date_gmt":"2022-10-09T02:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=51053"},"modified":"2022-10-08T19:09:23","modified_gmt":"2022-10-09T02:09:23","slug":"doctor-guilty-of-illegally-prescribing-more-than-120000-opioid-pills-over-six-years-to-18-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=51053","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Guilty of Illegally Prescribing More Than 120,000 Opioid Pills Over Six Years to 18 People"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0LOS ANGELES\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"An Orange County physician pleaded guilty Friday to a federal criminal charge for conspiring to illegally prescribe more than 120,000 opioid pills to 18 different people over six years without a legitimate medical purpose in exchange for cash and insurance payments, officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dr. Dzung Ahn Pham, 61, of Tustin, plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.<\/span><\/p>\n

If convicted of the crime, Pham is facing up to, 20 years in federal prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 According to his plea agreement, Pham, who owned Irvine Village Urgent Care, conspired with Jennifer Thaoyen Nguyen, 51, of Irvine, to illegally distribute controlled substances.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \"\"Nguyen, a licensed pharmacist who operated the Irvine-based Bristol Pharmacy, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. She is scheduled to enter her guilty plea to the felony charge on Oct. 14.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Pham admitted in his plea agreement that from January 2013 to December 2018, he wrote prescriptions for approximately 53,693 oxycodone pills, approximately 68,795 hydrocodone pills, and approximately 29,286 pills of amphetamine salts. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The prescriptions were filled using 18 different patient names. <\/span><\/p>\n

Pham admitted that he acted with the intent to distribute the drugs outside the course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On four occasions in November and December of 2017, Pham wrote prescriptions for a patient \u2013 identified in court papers as \u201cS.C.\u201d \u2013 whom he knew was a drug addict for a total of 704 pills of 30 mg of oxycodone. <\/span><\/p>\n

On two occasions in August 2018, Pham wrote prescriptions in the name of S.C.\u2019s wife, who was not Pham\u2019s patient, never saw Pham for any medical appointment, and was not aware Pham was issuing a prescription in her name for her husband\u2019s use.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 According to court documents, Pham knew that many other pharmacies would not fill his prescriptions because they did not have a legitimate medical purpose. So, he directed his patients to Nguyen\u2019s pharmacy, according to Nguyen\u2019s plea agreement. <\/span><\/p>\n

There, Nguyen accepted payments from Pham\u2019s patients and she subsequently gave Pham these payments from his patients for \u201coffice visits\u201d even though she knew these patients did not have a legitimate office visit with Pham prior to her filling the prescription, her plea agreement states.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nguyen admitted in her plea agreement to filling prescriptions for eight individuals outside the usual course of professional medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Nguyen further admitted that, from May 2017 to November 2018, she filled Pham-written prescriptions for a total of approximately 160 pills of oxycodone, approximately 1,810 pills of hydrocodone, and approximately 450 pills of amphetamine salts.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Both Pham and Nguyen admitted in their plea agreements to abusing their positions of trust as a physician and pharmacists, respectively.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton scheduled a Jan. 6\u00a0 sentencing hearing for Pham.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Drug Enforcement Administration\u2019s Tactical Diversion Squad, the Irvine Police Department, and IRS Criminal Investigation investigated this matter.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brett A. Sagel and Gregory W. Staples of the Santa Ana Branch Office are prosecuting this case.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0LOS ANGELES\u00a0 An Orange County physician pleaded guilty Friday to a federal criminal charge for conspiring to illegally prescribe more than 120,000 opioid pills to 18 different people over six years without…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDoctor Guilty of Illegally Prescribing More Than 120,000 Opioid Pills Over Six Years to 18 People<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0LOS ANGELES\u00a0 An Orange County physician pleaded guilty Friday to a federal criminal charge for conspiring to illegally prescribe more than\" \/>\n<meta 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