Vulture
September 13th, 2005, 09:30 AM
http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/news/local/12630506.htm
Feds: Bucks pharm sold illegal diet pills on Net
By JIM SMITH
smithjm@phillynews.com
Federal prosecutors contend that a small pharmacy in Bucks County illegally sold more than $13 million worth of diet drugs to Internet customers over a recent 19-month period.
Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday searched Budget Pharmacy, on Bustleton Pike, in Feasterville, and seized business records and computer equipment.
Although no one was arrested at Budget, Jon Cohen, a state narcotics agent working on a DEA task force, stated in an affidavit filed in federal court in Philadelphia that he has reason to believe the business records will contain evidence of criminal wrongdoing relating to drug sales to Internet customers.
Based on Cohen's sworn statement, Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Faith Angell also gave agents authorization to seize up to $13,069 from bank accounts belonging to the pharmacy and its owner, Charlotte J. Lopacki, at Bank of America.
Lopacki, 41, of Hancock Street near Poplar, a pharmacist also known as Charlotte J. Montemuro, couldn't be reached for comment.
Messages left yesterday by a reporter at Budget and at Lopacki's hair and nail salon next door were not returned, and no one answered the phone at her home.
The federal criminal investigation into Budget's Internet pharmaceutical business has been under way for more than a year.
It began after a man in Columbia, S.C., complained that his wife was ordering diet pills from an Internet Web site, getting prescriptions filled by Budget and other pharmacies.
Another man in Detroit later complained to authorities that he was divorcing his wife because she takes up to 70 Zanax pills a day, some of them dispensed by Budget. He also said his two teenage daughters are on probation for taking some of his wife's diet pills to school.
The diet drug sales "are illegal because they are not pursuant to valid prescriptions," Cohen alleged.
Federal authorities contend Budget sells the diet drugs to Internet customers based on bogus prescriptions that have been issued by doctors "who have never seen, talked to, or examined" the customers.
Budget allegedly never bothers to phone doctors to ensure the prescriptions are valid, in violation of federal law and regulations, Cohen said in his sworn statement.
Budget fills prescriptions "for the same group of 14-20 doctors located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico," Cohen stated.
With some 3,000 prescriptions a day being filled, "This... equates to hundreds of prescriptions being authorized per day by the same physicians."
Cohen contends the Internet customers have "no physical examinations or face-to-face meetings" with the doctors, "thus there is no legitimate patient/physician relationship."
"These Internet prescriptions are not valid," he said.
Lopacki told one state pharmacy inspector that she makes $7 per prescription and estimated that Budget fills about 3,000 prescriptions each day, six days a week.
In response to an inspector's questions, Lopacki allegedly insisted she wouldn't be responsible if a 90-pound teenager dropped dead while taking diet pills that Budget dispenses to Internet customers, but that the doctor who issued the prescription would be to blame.
A state inspection of Budget last year found four women filling Internet prescription orders without a licensed pharmacist present.
The women said they fill only one type of prescription each day, using machines that count the pills and put them in containers holding 30, 60 and 90 doses.
Budget ships the drugs to Internet customers via Federal Express.
"Typically, Budget mails between 2000 and 3000 pieces" each day, Cohen noted in his affidavit.
Feds: Bucks pharm sold illegal diet pills on Net
By JIM SMITH
smithjm@phillynews.com
Federal prosecutors contend that a small pharmacy in Bucks County illegally sold more than $13 million worth of diet drugs to Internet customers over a recent 19-month period.
Agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration yesterday searched Budget Pharmacy, on Bustleton Pike, in Feasterville, and seized business records and computer equipment.
Although no one was arrested at Budget, Jon Cohen, a state narcotics agent working on a DEA task force, stated in an affidavit filed in federal court in Philadelphia that he has reason to believe the business records will contain evidence of criminal wrongdoing relating to drug sales to Internet customers.
Based on Cohen's sworn statement, Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Faith Angell also gave agents authorization to seize up to $13,069 from bank accounts belonging to the pharmacy and its owner, Charlotte J. Lopacki, at Bank of America.
Lopacki, 41, of Hancock Street near Poplar, a pharmacist also known as Charlotte J. Montemuro, couldn't be reached for comment.
Messages left yesterday by a reporter at Budget and at Lopacki's hair and nail salon next door were not returned, and no one answered the phone at her home.
The federal criminal investigation into Budget's Internet pharmaceutical business has been under way for more than a year.
It began after a man in Columbia, S.C., complained that his wife was ordering diet pills from an Internet Web site, getting prescriptions filled by Budget and other pharmacies.
Another man in Detroit later complained to authorities that he was divorcing his wife because she takes up to 70 Zanax pills a day, some of them dispensed by Budget. He also said his two teenage daughters are on probation for taking some of his wife's diet pills to school.
The diet drug sales "are illegal because they are not pursuant to valid prescriptions," Cohen alleged.
Federal authorities contend Budget sells the diet drugs to Internet customers based on bogus prescriptions that have been issued by doctors "who have never seen, talked to, or examined" the customers.
Budget allegedly never bothers to phone doctors to ensure the prescriptions are valid, in violation of federal law and regulations, Cohen said in his sworn statement.
Budget fills prescriptions "for the same group of 14-20 doctors located throughout the United States and Puerto Rico," Cohen stated.
With some 3,000 prescriptions a day being filled, "This... equates to hundreds of prescriptions being authorized per day by the same physicians."
Cohen contends the Internet customers have "no physical examinations or face-to-face meetings" with the doctors, "thus there is no legitimate patient/physician relationship."
"These Internet prescriptions are not valid," he said.
Lopacki told one state pharmacy inspector that she makes $7 per prescription and estimated that Budget fills about 3,000 prescriptions each day, six days a week.
In response to an inspector's questions, Lopacki allegedly insisted she wouldn't be responsible if a 90-pound teenager dropped dead while taking diet pills that Budget dispenses to Internet customers, but that the doctor who issued the prescription would be to blame.
A state inspection of Budget last year found four women filling Internet prescription orders without a licensed pharmacist present.
The women said they fill only one type of prescription each day, using machines that count the pills and put them in containers holding 30, 60 and 90 doses.
Budget ships the drugs to Internet customers via Federal Express.
"Typically, Budget mails between 2000 and 3000 pieces" each day, Cohen noted in his affidavit.