Rochester Pharmacist Pleads Guilty to Forging Prescriptions
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 13, 2011 |
ROCHESTER, NY—U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul, Jr. announced today that Aviva Goldstein, 34, of Brighton, N.Y., a licensed pharmacist, pleaded guilty to knowingly causing drugs to be dispensed without a valid prescription before Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman. The charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney John Field, who is handling the case, the defendant forged prescriptions for various non-narcotic medicines over a 20-month period causing these controlled drugs to be dispensed to her in violation of federal health laws.
The plea is the result of investigative work by special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the direction of Christopher M. Piehota, Special Agent in Charge, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Mark Dragonetti.
Sentencing is scheduled for November 29, 2011 before Judge Feldman.