Pennsylvania doctor admits illegally selling percocet prescriptions from new jersey office
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
January 9, 2012 |
TRENTON, N.J. – Dr. Augustine S. Lee admitted today to illegally selling Percocet prescriptions from his Trenton office, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.
Lee, 69, of Holland, Pa., pleaded guilty to an Information charging him with distribution of oxycodone, a Schedule II controlled substance, without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice. Lee entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
Lee admitted that in November of 2010, he wrote a Percocet prescription for a patient who came to see him at his Trenton office in exchange for money. Lee admitted that he did not conduct any physical examination from the patient, nor obtain any medical history.
At the outset of the investigation, law enforcement received a tip that Lee was selling prescriptions out of the front window of his Stuyvesant Ave. office, resulting in increased pedestrian traffic in the area.
As part of his guilty plea, Lee agreed to forfeit $83,880 in illegal proceeds to the federal government.
The distribution of a Schedule II controlled substance carries a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and $1 million fine. Sentencing is currently scheduled for May 7, 2012.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the New Jersey Division of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Brian R. Crowell, and the Trenton Police Department, headed by Acting Director David Armitage, for their work in the investigation of this case.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Sarah M. Wolfe and Jennifer Davenport of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.
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Defense counsel: Assistant Federal Public Defender Brian P. Reilly Esq., Trenton
