4,000 Oxycodone, Ordered Through the VA’s Own Portal

A VA pharmacy tech used the supplier web portal to order and divert 4,000 oxycodone, 3,300 hydrocodone and 14,000+ Viagra/Cialis pills, falsified the invoices, and texted the drugs out the door to a street distributor.

The investigation began in June 2016 when VA OIG got a report of large amounts of unaccounted-for prescription medication charged to VA accounts at the John L. McClellan Memorial VA Hospital in Little Rock.

Patel used his access to a medical supplier’s web portal to order and divert 4,000 oxycodone pills, 3,300 hydrocodone pills, 308 ounces of promethazine-with-codeine syrup and more than 14,000 Viagra and Cialis pills, then falsified payment invoices to avoid detection. Patel texted Pagan to arrange transfers; Pagan distributed drugs to others including Neal, a student trainee, who passed them to a street-level distributor.

Investigators ran controlled deliveries of oxycodone during the probe. VA OIG and DEA investigated. Restitution of $22,000 and $77,722 was ordered against two of the defendants.

"used his VA access to a medical supplier’s web portal to order and divert"
— U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; VA OIG Monthly Highlights (sentencing)

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Arkansas; VA OIG Monthly Highlights (sentencing). Case file in the VA Fraud case files — part of the VA Fraud record. Cases are published as the courts decided them; amounts are stated as the Justice Department states them (billed, stolen, or ordered in restitution, as labeled).