The 65-year-old physician’s history with the Texas Medical Board goes all the way back to 1990. The Fort Worth doctor has been disciplined more than once for “inappropriate prescribing practices,” a recent news report stated.
He is under a Texas Medical Board supervision order and has also agreed not to practice under the workers’ compensation program. Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration raided his office and seized nearly $700,000.
DEA agents had a warrant that said the raid was part of an investigation of wire fraud conspiracy and the illegal distribution of controlled substances. In December of last year, the government filed a forfeiture claim for the seized funds, as well as his Fort Worth medical office, his home and a condominium he owns in Florida.
The Dallas Morning News says the DEA, U.S. Attorney and the doctor himself all declined to comment on the case.
The newspaper notes that the DEA is in the middle of a national campaign against illegal opioid prescriptions with prosecutors indicting doctors and pharmacies for allegedly conspiring to distribute controlled substances.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says opioids (including prescription painkillers, fentanyl and heroin) killed more than 42,000 in 2016 alone. Forty percent of overdose fatalities involved prescriptions, the agency said.
The Fort Worth doctor is not the first indicted in the crackdown that began two years ago. In 2016, a Plano anesthesiologist was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for selling prescriptions of the painkiller hydrocodone.
There is no doubt that the Fort Worth physician’s freedom and career are both at stake.
Medical professionals under investigation should speak with an attorney experienced in not only license defense, but criminal defense matters as well. Contact Rivas Goldstein for more information.