Eagle Man Pleads Guilty To Prescription Drug Fraud

BOISE – Rahil Akhtar, 37, of Eagle, Idaho, pleaded guilty today in federal court to one count of acquiring and obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud and deception, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Akhtar was a dentist licensed to practice in the state of Idaho.

According to court documents, from 2011 through June 2013, Akhtar schemed to obtain controlled substances for himself by writing fraudulent prescriptions to other people. The prescriptions were for medications containing hydrocodone, a Schedule III controlled substance, and Alprazolam (a benzodiazepine), a Schedule IV controlled substance. Generally, Akhtar would write a prescription to a person who was not a current patient in need of treatment or a prescription. At Akhtar’s direction, the person would fill the prescription at a pharmacy and return the majority of the pills to Akhtar. Sometimes Akhtar provided the person filling the prescription with money, but other times he expected that person to pay for the prescription. On some occasions, the person picking up the prescription kept some of the pills.

According to the plea agreement, Akhtar admitted that he wrote approximately 93 prescriptions and thereby acquired by fraud more than 2,500, but less than 5,000, dosage units of Schedule III and IV controlled substances. Akhtar further admitted the prescriptions were written without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of a professional dental practice: the individuals to whom the prescriptions were written were not patients in need of the prescriptions at the time; Akhtar provided no treatment and created no medical records related to the prescriptions; and although written to different people, the prescriptions were intended to provide drugs for Akhtar.

As part of the plea agreement, Akhtar will withdraw his DEA application for a DEA number in the state of Washington and agreed not to reapply for any DEA registration for at least one year after the final entry of judgment in this case, or the completion of any term of incarceration resulting from this case, whichever is later.

The charge of acquiring and obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud and deception is punishable by up to four years in prison (or eight years for persons with a prior controlled substance felony conviction), a term of supervised release of not more than one year (but not more than three years), and up to eight years of supervised release.

Akhtar is scheduled to be sentenced on January 29, 2014, before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge at the federal courthouse in Boise.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA Diversion) and Meridian Police Department.