Feds Charge Larchmont Doc With Selling Oxycodone Scripts For Cash

LARCHMONT, NY — Federal authorities said a Westchester physician's greed helped to destroy lives in the face of a nationwide opioid epidemic.

Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Frank A. Tarentino III, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Division of the Drug Enforcement Administration; Naomi Gruchacz, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General; James Smith, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the FBI; and Thomas Fattorusso, the Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office of the IRS, Criminal Investigation, announced the unsealing of complaints charging Mordechai Bar, a Larchmont physician, and Feroze Nazirbage, a pharmacy owner, with illegally diverting oxycodone and other controlled substances.

Both Bar and Nazirbage were arrested on Wednesday and were presented Thursday in White Plains federal court.

"As alleged, Dr. Mordechai Bar and Feroze Nazirbage breached the trust that was placed in them to prescribe and dispense controlled substances only for legitimate medical purposes," Williams said. "They allegedly used their positions as healthcare professionals as a cover for what amounted to no more than common drug dealing operations. We will not tolerate the illegal sale of oxycodone and other addictive substances into the community, whether those sales take place on the street corner, at a doctor’s office, or behind a pharmacy counter."

According to court filings, Bar is a physician who lives in Larchmont with an internal medicine practice located on Huguenot Street in New Rochelle. From January 2023 to May 3o, 2024, Bar conspired with others to provide prescriptions not issued for a legitimate medical purpose for oxycodone, amphetamine, and alprazolam to patients in exchange for cash payments. Bar issued those prescriptions without conducting medical examinations of the patients and, in many cases, without even speaking to or meeting with the patients, according to federal officials.

During the DEA investigation, a confidential source purchased medically unnecessary prescriptions from Bar, in both the confidential source's name and in the names of others.

Bar began selling prescriptions to the confidential source around 2012, when the source was told by a friend that the friend was getting prescriptions from Bar and the friend thought Bar would write prescriptions for the confidential source as well, according to DOJ court filings. When the source accompanied the friend to Bar's office, Bar did in fact write the source prescriptions for oxycodone, amphetamine, and alprazolam, without any medical exams or testing, in exchange for cash, according to investigators.

Since 2012, the source has regularly visited Bar to receive prescriptions for oxycodone, amphetamine, and alprazolam, according to the federal investigators. The source told officials that other than blood pressure checks a few times by office staff and a single urine test with no follow-up, there have been no other medical exams or tests over the years.

Federal law enforcement officials said that after a few visits, the source had Bar write multiple prescriptions using different surnames, and eventually also for the confidential source's parents, even though Bar had never spoken to or met them.

Bar typically charged $100 per name. Occasionally, Bar's office would send in prescriptions for the confidential source without meeting him, for which he would pay an additional $100 per name.

The DEA agent who investigated the case reviewed prescription data from January 2019 to December 2022, and determined that Bar wrote prescriptions for the source and his parents nearly every month.

After the confidential source began working with law enforcement in late 2022, he continued to purchase prescriptions from Bar in his name and in his parents' names, prosecutors contend. In February 2023, the source began purchasing prescriptions for "Nicole Gilbert," an undercover name used by a law enforcement officer, officials said.

According to court records, from February 2023 to April 2024, the confidential source allegedly purchased:

• 600 tablets of oxycodone HCl (IR) 20 mg,
• 180 tablets of dextroamphetamine-amphetamine 30 mg,
• 330 tablets of alprazolam 2 mg, and
• 330-360 tablets of oxycodone-acetaminophen 5/325mg.

In exchange for those prescriptions, the source paid Bar thousands of dollars in cash, most of which was handed directly to Bar in the examination room, according to the DEA. Several hundreds were also paid to Bar's office staff for submitting prescriptions without meeting with CS in advance, prosecutors said.

"The circumstances surrounding the prescription sales discussed indicate that Mordechai Bar, the defendant, was knowingly diverting controlled substances to [the confidential source]," the DEA agent wrote. "For instance, based on my training and experience in other diversion investigations, I know that it is atypical for a physician to (i) prescribe controlled substances — especially powerful opioids like oxycodone — to patients without meeting them in person and performing evaluations on them, such as regular urinalyses; (ii) prescribe a patient the "Holy Trinity" drug cocktail of oxycodone, amphetamine, and alprazolam given the health risks of mixing an opioid and a benzodiazepine..., and the high instances of abuse of those drugs among oxycodone addicts; (iii) write similar prescriptions for large amounts of oxycodone to multiple members of the same family; and (iv) receive cash payments for prescriptions directly from patients, especially while still in the examination room. While each of those facts is, on its own, an indication that diversion is occurring, together they are strong evidence that the prescriptions that the physician is writing are not being issued for a legitimate medical purpose by a practitioner acting within the usual course of professional practice."

Prosecutors said Nazirbage is affiliated with several pharmacies in and around NYC, including F&N Pharmacy, of which he is the president, and QV Pharmacy, where law enforcement said he has been observed working and directing customers.

Several of the illegal prescriptions that Bar has written were sent to QV Pharmacy, the DEA investigation found. From December 2022 to May 30, 2024, prosecutors say Nazirbage conspired with others to illegally dispense or distribute oxycodone and other controlled substances, in exchange for cash. In addition to filling prescriptions that he knew were not issued for a legitimate medical purpose by a practitioner acting within the usual course of professional practice, he also repeatedly sold controlled substances to a customer without a prescription in what is known as a "backdoor sale," according to court filings. During one of those sales, Nazirbage gave a customer a handwritten menu of various prescription drugs and their per-pill cost for future backdoor sales, federal authorities said.

"The arrests today of Doctor Mordechai Bar and pharmacy owner Feroze Nazirbage are the result of the DEA’s commitment in pursuing those individuals who allegedly exacerbate the ongoing opioid crisis," Tarentino said. "As alleged, these two healthcare professionals, who illegally diverted the highly addictive oxycodone for cash had a responsibility of protecting patients’ lives, not destroying them. The DEA will relentlessly pursue those individuals responsible for putting profits and greed over the health of their patients."

71-year-old Bar, of Larchmont, was charged with one count of conspiring to illegally dispense or distribute oxycodone and other controlled substances, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, and 12 counts of dispensing or distributing oxycodone and other controlled substances, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

50-year-old Nazirbage, of Bellerose, is charged with one count of conspiring to illegally dispense or distribute oxycodone and other controlled substances, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail, and 11 counts of dispensing or distributing oxycodone and other controlled substances, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail.

"This physician and pharmacy owner are alleged to have illegally distributed controlled substances, which is behavior that could contribute to the ongoing opioid epidemic," Gruchacz said. "HHS-OIG works with our law enforcement partners to ensure that individuals involved in fraud schemes that exploit federal health care programs and threaten patient safety are held accountable."

Williams praised the efforts of the DEA, HHS-OIG, the FBI, and IRS-CI. He also thanked the DEA Task Force Officers from the Yonkers Police Department, the Westchester County Police Department, the Putnam Sheriff Department, the Orangetown Police Department, and the Rockland Sheriff Department. Williams added that the investigation is ongoing. Anyone who believes they have information relevant to this investigation should contact DEA Victim/Witness Coordinator James Lee at this email address and/or call (646) 529-4042.