In an unprecedented move, federal prosecutors in New York have charged execs of a prescription pill distributor with felony drug-trafficking charges in their war against opiods.
The US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, in announcing the charges Tuesday, said the move was the first of its kind in the nation.
Authorities targeted the Rochester Drug Cooperative, which is headquartered in Rochester and among the 10 largest drug distributors in the country. The company is accused of distributing oxycodone and fentanyl to pharmacies that were known by its executives to sell drugs to customers who used the substances illegally.
According to a news release from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, RDC employees warned executives that some of the pharmacies receiving the company’s products were like a “DEA investigation in the making” or “like a stick of dynamite waiting for [the] DEA to light the fuse.”
The company’s former chief executive officer, Laurence F. Doud III, and its former chief compliance officer, William Pietruszewski, were among those hit with charges.
From 2012 to 2016, under Doud’s leadership, RDC’s sales of oxycodone rose from 4.7 million to 42.2 million, according to the DEA.
Geoffrey Berman, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said his office has reached an agreement with the drug company in which the firm accepts responsibility for its conduct and agrees to pay a $20 million penalty.
That agreement still needs a judge’s approval.
The case is not the first time the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan has tangled with RDC.
In 2015, then-US Attorney Preet Bharara brought a civil suit against the company alleging violations of the Controlled Substances Act, saying the company failed to report information about distributions and thefts to the DEA. The company agreed to pay a $360,000 settlement in that case.