Prosecutors alleged that Lambrakis would charge between $150 and $250 in cash for Prosecutors alleged that Lambrakis would charge between $150 and $250 in cash for "patient visits" at his Astoria clinic. Photo: Google Maps

Manhattan federal prosecutors announced Wednesday that a doctor has pleaded guilty to illegally prescribing mass amounts of oxycodone, in a scheme that netted him more than $2 million in cash payments from patients at two clinics in Queens.

In a statement, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York said that between 2011 and 2016, Emmanuel Lambrakis had written thousands of medically unnecessary prescriptions, resulting in the illegal distribution of more than 2 million tablets of oxycodone, a powerful and highly addictive narcotic opioid.

Lambrakis pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of conspiring to unlawfully distribute and possess with intent to distribute oxycodone, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Lambrakis, who lives in Manhattan, had originally pleaded guilty before a federal magistrate judge in March 2018, but later withdrew his plea. Trial in the case was set to begin Dec. 2.

Robert Caliendo, who represents Lambrakis, said that despite Tuesday's guilty plea, much work remained to be done before sentencing.

"For example, the government's press release makes certain claims about the number of prescriptions and pills. But the scope of improper conduct hasn't yet been determined and may require further litigation," he said.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined additional comment.

Prosecutors alleged in a 2016 complaint that Lambrakis would charge between $150 and $250 in cash for "patient visits" at his clinics in Jamaica and Astoria, where he would perform simple and "perfunctory" examinations while engaging in little to no dialogue with his clients. Often, the visits ended with Lambrakis issuing each patient a prescription for 120 30-miligram tablets of the drug, a quantity that prosecutors said could net a distributor around $2,400 in cash.

On numerous occasions, the complaint alleged, Lambrakis wrote 100 or more prescriptions for the 30-milligram tablets in a single day.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the tablets could then be resold for thousands of dollars on the street, each with a value of $20 to $40 in New York City, or even higher in other parts of the country. In total, authorities said, the 2 million or so tablets Lambrakis illegally prescribed could be sold on the street for tens of millions of dollars, prosecutors said.

Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Feb. 7, before U.S. District Judge William H. Pauley III of the Southern District of New York.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Tactical Diversion Squad, which includes agents and officers from the DEA, the New York Police Department, the New York State Police, Town of Orangetown Police Department, Rockland County Drug Task Force, Westchester County Police Department and New York City Department of Investigation.

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman also acknowledged the assistance of the Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, the New York City Human Resources Administration and the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

The case is being handled by the office's Narcotics Unit, with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kimberly J. Ravener, Jessica K. Fender, Ryan Finkel, Sarah Mortazavi and Joshua A. Naftalis in charge of the prosecution.

 

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