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Press Release

Rochester Man and Woman Sentenced in Oxycontin Distribution Conspiracy

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of New York
 

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Jimmie Lee Simmons, 60, of Rochester, NY, who was convicted of acquiring Oxycodone through fraud, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David G. Larimer to six months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $367.55. In addition, Shantel Williams, 37, also of Rochester, who was convicted of conspiring to fraudulently obtain and distribute Oxycodone, was sentenced by Judge Larimer to 12 months and ordered to pay restitution totaling $11,135.70.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John J. Field, who handled the case, stated that Shantel Williams wrote fraudulent prescriptions for OxyContin, which she then sold to Jimmie Lee Simmons and James Marsh. Simmons located individuals willing to participate in the scheme by sharing their Medicaid information with him.  Simmons provided the Medicaid information to Williams, who wrote fraudulent scripts using this information, and sold them to Simmons for $860 each.  Simmons then took the named beneficiaries to local pharmacies to fill the prescriptions, and paid them $100 for each prescription. From July 2008 to March 2010, Williams wrote and sold at least 20 fraudulent OxyContin prescriptions.

Williams and Simmons were arrested along with five others in December 2012. All seven defendants have been convicted.

The sentencing was the culmination of an investigation on the part of Special Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge James J. Hunt, New York Field Division, and Investigators of the New York State Attorney General, Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, under the direction of Acting Director Amy Held.
Updated November 19, 2014