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N.Y. ex-doctor guilty of writing steroid scriptsDate: 14.07.2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United States
PROVIDENCE — A former New York doctor who illegally prescribed anabolic steroids and human-growth hormones for bodybuilders and others in Rhode Island yesterday pleaded guilty to conspiracy, health-care fraud and drug charges in U.S. District Court.
Ana Maria Santi, 68, of Queens, N.Y., was the second doctor to plead guilty in the scheme. The head of a New Jersey drug company, who prosecutors say asked the doctors to write prescriptions after he drummed up business through magazine and Web site ads aimed at bodybuilders, also agreed last week to plead guilty. A hearing for the plea has been scheduled for Friday.
Santi is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 2. As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to seek the minimum sentence under federal guidelines and to seek a lower level of sentence, which is called for under the guidelines when a defendant admits guilt. The judge who sentences Santi is not required to follow the plea sentencing recommendation.
The maximum sentence on each count of conspiracy and 26 counts of drug charges is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. On the two counts of health-care fraud, it’s 10 years and $250,000 each. If Santi got the maximum on each charge, it would add up to 155 years and $7.25 million.
Court records show that, from April 2004 to August 2006, Santi wrote an average of 100 prescriptions a month at $25 each, even though her medical license had been revoked by the State of New York. She forged the name of a retired doctor who was living in a California nursing home, the records show. She wrote prescriptions for 392 of the 480 customers of the New Jersey company, American Pharmaceutical Group.
Santi also wrote prescriptions on behalf of at least three other companies during the same period, earning an additional $1,000 to $2,000 a month from them, court records say.
The health-care fraud charges arise from payments made on behalf of customers who were insured by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island.
Victor Mariani, another New York doctor who pleaded guilty to similar charges in the case in March, is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 7.
On July 6, the man prosecutors say is at the center of the conspiracy, Daniel McGlone of American Pharmaceutical Group, agreed to plead guilty to a total of 50 charges. In addition to conspiracy, health-care fraud and drug charges, McGlone also faces 30 counts of money laundering.
According to the indictment in the case, McGlone, 54, of North Brunswick, N.J., placed the ads for bodybuilders seeking anabolic steroids or human-growth hormones. When people responded to the ad, McGlone, who is not a doctor, would advise customers which drugs to get, depending on their bodybuilding goals or other activities for which they planned to take the drugs. McGlone then asked Santi, Mariani or other doctors to write prescriptions for the drugs his customers wanted. McGlone would forward the prescriptions to various pharmacies across the country, which delivered the drugs to the customers. Either the customer or the pharmacy would pay McGlone, who would send a cut to the doctors.
The money-laundering charges against McGlone stem from his transferring the ill-gotten money out of his company’s bank accounts, according to the indictment.
The indictment alleged that McGlone netted $860,810 in the operation, and that he laundered $85,535. Santi netted $24,340, according to the indictment. Prosecutors are seeking to seize all that money, plus $34,845 from Mariani.
As with Santi, prosecutors have agreed to seek the minimum sentence under federal guidelines for McGlone, as well as a decrease in the level of the sentence because he will plead guilty. That would result in a sentence of 46 to 57 months, according to the plea agreement. Prosecutors also agreed to an additional decrease in the term if McGlone provided “substantial assistance to the government in the investigation or prosecution of another person.”
The maximum penalties for each charge of conspiracy, health-care fraud and drug violations are the same as Santi faces. In addition, each of the 30 counts of money laundering has a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. The maximums for each charge would add up to 710 years and $20 million.
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