A doctor by the name of Gordon Freedman has been sentenced to 121 months in prison for “participating in a scheme to receive bribes and kickbacks in the form of fees for sham educational programs (“Speaker Programs”) from pharmaceutical company Insys Therapeutics in exchange for prescribing millions of dollars’ worth of Subsys, a potent fentanyl-based spray manufactured by Insys, among other offenses,” states a press release by the United States Department of Justice states.
He was also sentenced to 210 months in prison for “for distributing oxycodone and fentanyl to a patient for no legitimate medical purpose.” That patient ultimately died of a fentanyl overdose from drugs Freedman illegally prescribed him.
Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the doctor “allowed his medical judgment to be corrupted by hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes that he accepted from Insys in return for prescribing Subsys, a potent fentanyl painkiller,” adding that he “will now be serving a long prison sentence.”
Freedman received approximately $308,600 in Speaker Program fees from Insys in exchange for prescribing large volumes of Subsys.
The doctor owned a private practice at 1540 York Avenue, between 81st and 82nd Streets, where he specialized in pain management and anesthesiology.
In June, we reported that another Upper East Side doctor had been sentenced for his involvement in the same scheme with Insys Therapeutics.
