Eagle Dentist Sentenced For Prescription Drug Fraud

BOISE – Rahil Akhtar, 37, of Eagle, Idaho, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge for 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. He was sentenced to three years’ probation, 300 hours of community service, and fined $4,000. As part of his probation, Akhtar may not work in any capacity related to dentistry or pharmaceuticals without the permission of his probation officer. Additionally, in a separate proceeding, Akhtar entered a consent decree with the Board of Dentistry to suspend and revoke his dental license for ten years.

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.

On November 4, 2013, Akhtar pleaded guilty to two counts of acquiring and obtaining a controlled substance by misrepresentation, fraud and deception. 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.

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