A
who ran a pill mill from the lobby of the Miami-Dade County
Government Center is pleading guilty for his
role in a $55 million medicare scam involving prescription pain
killers. Aiman Aryan will give up his pharmacist license and will be
sentenced to at least 10 years in prison. The feds will also seize
$1.8 million in frozen bank accounts belonging to Robert's Drug
Store, a chain of four pharmacies Aryan operates in Miami.
The
general merchandise sections of the stores have remained opened since
Aryan was arrested this past October. At the time, Miami-Dade
spokeswoman Suzy Trutie said the county attorney's office would
determine if Aryan's five-year $204,000 lease could be terminated
based on his criminal indictment. The way things are going for Aryan,
the drug store will probably shut down on its own before the county
gets around to bidding for a new pharmacy.
During a year long investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services zeroed in on a pair of pain clinic operators who were sending people to get fake prescriptions for oxycodone and oxymorphone from Hialeah physician Frank Ballesteros.
The patients filled their prescriptions at Aryan's pharmacies and another pharmacy in Plantation owned by another pharmacist in on the scheme.
Aryan, Ballesteros, and the pain clinic operators would split kickbacks they received from fraudulent medicare bills.
The feds say Aryan's pharmacies dispensed an average of 270 oxycodone and oxymorphone pills a day.
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