Danielson Pharmacist Who Illegally Dispensed Prescription Drugs is Sentenced
| U.S. Attorney’s Office September 06, 2012 |
David B. Fein, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that Daniel Fiore, 60, of Brooklyn, Connecticut, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Ellen Bree Burns in New Haven to two years of probation and a fine of $20,000 for unlawfully dispensing controlled substances. Fiore must serve the first six months of his probation in home confinement under electronic monitoring by the United States Probation Office.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Fiore owned and operated Daniel’s Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy located at 42 Reynolds Street in Danielson. In 2009 and 2010, Fiore unlawfully dispensed a Schedule III controlled substance containing a mixture of hydrocodone and acetaminophen (generic Vicodin) and Schedule IV controlled substances, including diazepam (Valium), alprazolam (Xanax), or triazolam (Halcion), to friends and family members without any valid prescriptions for such medications. In order to conceal his conduct, Fiore created fraudulent prescriptions in his own handwriting, as if the prescriptions had been called in by a physician’s office, and then documented filling the prescriptions in the same manner that he documented legitimate prescriptions. In total, Fiore unlawfully dispensed 1,542 tablets of Schedule III and 210 tablets of Schedule IV controlled substances.
After his arrest in January 2011, Fiore agreed to surrender his federal and state licenses to dispense controlled substances.
On April 18, 2012, Fiore waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully dispensing controlled substances.
This investigation was conducted by special agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, diversion investigators from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Drug Control Division of the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, and the Connecticut State Police Troop D Quality of Life Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David J. Sheldon.
U.S. Attorney Fein encouraged individuals who suspect health care fraud to report it by calling the Health Care Fraud Task Force at 203-777-6311 or 1-800-HHS-TIPS.