Bharara Nails Bronx Doc In $165 Million Oxycodone Scheme
Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the conviction of Dr. Kevin Lowe, the owner of “AstraMed,” a purported medical clinic network in the Bronx. More than five million tablets of the prescription painkiller oxycodone were unlawfully distributed from those clinics over a three-year period. Lowe was convicted Monday following a two-week jury trial presided over by U.S. District Judge Lorna G. Schofield.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “As a jury unanimously found, Kevin Lowe operated a series of purported medical clinics that functioned as prescription pill drug trafficking dens where doctors wrote almost 35,000 medically unnecessary prescriptions for oxycodone, comprising oxycodone tablets with a street value of nearly $165 million. I would like to thank the Drug Enforcement Administration and the New York City Police Department for being our partners in this case.”
Operating from approximately January 2011 and February 2014, AstraMed doctors wrote 34,925 medically unnecessary prescriptions for oxycodone, comprising nearly 5.5 million oxycodone tablets with a street value of more than $165 million. Lowe alone collected more than $7 million in cash for these sham “doctor visits” during this time period.
Lowe, 55, of Melville, New York, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Lowe is scheduled to be sentenced on August 10, 2015 at 4:30 p.m.
Twenty-four additional participants in the drug distribution ring – including doctors, clinic employees, and drug traffickers who oversaw crews of “patients” whom they sent into the clinics in order to obtain medically unnecessary prescriptions – have previously pled guilty to their participation in the unlawful scheme.
Astramed Physicians PC 913 E Tremont Avenue
Lowe’s clinics bore little resemblance to a standard medical office. For example, on a daily basis, crowds of up to 100 people gathered outside the AstraMed office on Southern Boulevard clamoring to see one of the doctors at the clinic in order to obtain a prescription for oxycodone. Virtually none of these individuals had any medical need for oxycodone, or any legitimate medical record documenting an ailment for which oxycodone would be prescribed. Instead, most of these individuals were members of “crews” – that is, they were recruited and paid by high-level drug traffickers, to pose as “patients” in order to receive medically unnecessary prescriptions from the doctors.
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