A former chief executive officer of a generic drug distribution company was convicted of selling large amounts of opioids to crooked pharmacies to boost profits and his own pay, according to Bloomberg.
Laurence Doud III, who served as CEO of Rochester Drug Co-operative (RDC) for 25 years, was found guilty Wednesday in New York of selling addictive oxycodone and fentanyl pills to businesses that sold the medicines to addicts and street dealers.
The 78-year-old bowed his head and looked at the floor as a juror read the verdict that could result in life imprisonment. He faces a minimum of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced June 29, according to the news outlet.
Doud was convicted of distributing controlled substances and defrauding the federal government by failing to report suspicious orders to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Robert Gottlieb, Doud’s lawyer, said in an email, “Mr. Doud is a good and honorable man. Today’s verdict is a monumental travesty of justice. Mr. Doud’s fight is just beginning, and he will prevail on appeal.”
His defense attorneys argued that Doud was not responsible for failing to stop illegal opioid sales. There was no agreement among Doud and his employees to distribute drugs illegally, they said, and he hired outside consultants, including a former DEA agent, to look into RDCs compliance, per Bloomberg.
Other pharma executives have also faced criminal charges stemming from the opioid crisis, including many employees at Insys Therapeutics Inc.
In January 2020, John Kapoor, former CEO of Insys, was sentenced to five and a half years in prison for playing a key role in an opioid kickback scheme to boost the sales of Subsys – a sublingual (under-the-tongue) fentanyl spray.
Prosecutors argued that Doud disregarded strict laws making it illegal to sell the drugs without controls preventing them from being diverted to illegal uses, according to Bloomberg.
He has also been accused of ignoring red flags such as unusual sales volumes, a high proportion of cash purchases, buyers traveling from out of state to buy from suspected drug stores, and prescriptions from doctors on opioid watch lists, according to government lawyers.
In five years, Doud derived $500,000 in bonuses from RDC’s sales of opioids, according to the government.
William Pietruszewski, RDC’s former chief compliance officer, testified that Doud knew that most drugs being shipped were illegally diverted, pleading guilty to his role in the scheme in 2019 and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. The news was published Thursday in Bloomberg.
