AG: New York Psychiatrist Admits To Selling Painkillers To Drug Dealers
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A psychiatrist with offices in Midtown Manhattan and Rockland County has admitted to illegally selling prescription painkillers to drug dealers.
Dr. David Brizer, 60, pleaded guilty to felony drug sale, drug possession and conspiracy charges as well as tax fraud for under-reporting his income on his state tax returns in 2010 and 2011 by at least a half a million dollars, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Friday.
Much of that money was proceeds from his prescription sales, Schneiderman said.
Brizer allegedly sold prescriptions for oxycodone and other narcotics for up to $300 each from February 2010 to August 2012. Prosecutors said Brizer sold millions of dollars worth of painkillers from his offices in Nyack and West 54th Street.
"Instead of caring for the sick, Dr. Brizer used his medical license to place powerful addictive narcotics in the hands of drug dealers and feed a prescription drug epidemic that is devastating communities and families across New York," Schneiderman said.
He faces 1 to 3 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 11.
A case is also pending against Franklin Walker, a reputed drug dealer that Brizer sold prescriptions to, Schneiderman said. Walker was arrested in December on drug possession charges and grand larceny for allegedly causing Medicaid to pay thousands of dollars to pharmacies for narcotics he illegally obtained and resold. Walker, 52, of Westtown, faces nine years in prison.
