Ex-New York Lawmaker Acquitted of Conspiracy, Fraud in Pill Mill Case
Sep 25, 2019
New York, NY(Law Firm Newswire) September 25, 2019 – A former Brooklyn lawmaker was acquitted of conspiracy, scheme to defraud the state and health care fraud charges in an opioid pill-pushing ring after a two-month trial in Manhattan, New York. All the charges were felonies.
Ex-assemblymember Alec Brook-Krasny, 61, and two others were accused of participating in a scheme that allegedly pumped over 6.3 million oxycodone pills into Brooklyn streets and made in excess of $24 million from 2012 to 2017. The three defendants were not found guilty of any charge. A total of 15 people were arrested for facilitating and running the operation.
A Manhattan Supreme Court judge declared a mistrial on three of the eight counts of commercial bribery in the second degree that Brook-Krasny faced. The Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor has until the next court date to decide whether or not to retry him.
“Addiction to prescription drugs has fueled a rise in prescription fraud,” commented Peter Brill, a New York criminal defense attorney with Brill Legal Group, who is not involved with the case. “The government’s overzealous persecution of doctors and pharmacists in an effort to fight the opioid epidemic can sometimes lead to overcharging and harsh penalties. In such cases, defendants need aggressive legal representation to protect their rights.”
Prosecutors claimed Brook-Krasny provided Dr. Lazar Feygin, 72, with “his political connection, his knowledge and his assistance” to enable him to run an opioid-peddling ring out of his clinics. Brook-Krasny conducted urinalyses while working for Quality Laboratory Services. The former assemblymember was accused of making patients take unnecessary tests that were billed to Medicaid and Medicare. He also allegedly “systematically deleted” alcohol-positive urinalyses results.
Authorities said Feygin made $16 million over a five-year period by distributing pills from LF Medical Services of New York in Clinton Hill and Parkville Medical Health in Kensington. He could face five years in prison after pleading guilty to health care fraud, criminal sale of a prescription for a controlled substance and conspiracy.
The former assemblymember’s lawyer argued that Brook-Krasny was being unfairly targeted by prosecutors who “ruined his life” and reputation. The lawyer pointed out that his client was unlikely to have participated in a prescription drug conspiracy given that his son died of an opioid overdose.
Brook-Krasny’s two co-defendants were nurse practitioner Marjorie Louis-Jacques and physician assistant Marie Nazaire. They both worked at Feygin’s clinic.
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