14 DAY TRIAL // A pharmacy owner from Maryland was sentenced to 57 months in prison for misusing her customers' personal information and selling mislabeled meds. The identity thief filed fake reimbursement claims for inexistent prescription refills in the name of other patients.
According to authorities, Pamela Arrey, 49, owned two pharmacies in Baltimore, operating under the name of Medicine Shoppe. For over five years, from January 2003 to July 2008, kept track of customers who never requested the authorized refills for their prescriptions, and filed reimbursement claims from health care benefit programs in their name. The scheme earned the pharmacist approximately $505,745, which she used for mortgage payments.
Arrey was also involved in an even more dangerous scheme, which involved misbranding large quantities of prescription drugs. The meds were acquired from a supplier that was not approved by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore posed a serious health risk. The pharmacist admitted to filling out prescription orders with the mislabeled drugs.
When federal agents raided Arrey's home in July 2008, they found controlled substances like Oxycodone, Fentanyl, Adderall and Kadian that were expired and had their expiration date removed. An inspection of her pharmacies uncovered 11 drums containing over 200,000 misbranded pills.
"Evidence that Pamela Arrey was making fraudulent claims to health care programs and relabeling prescription drugs purchased in large drums from an unlicensed supplier caused the Food and Drug Administration to issue an alert to customers in 2008 not to use drugs distributed by her pharmacy. When drugs are taken out of their original containers and relabeled, customers cannot verify their authenticity and expiration date. The sentence imposed on Ms. Arrey holds her accountable for committing fraud and putting at risk the health of her customers," said Maryland U.S. District Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein.
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