MELVILLE, N.Y. _ Authorities said he pocketed $25 million from the illegal sale of black-market medications, all the while exposing HIV patients to expired and mislabeled drugs.
Now, pharmacist Ira Gross, 63, of Babylon, faces up to 25 years in state prison after being convicted of being the "mastermind" of a scheme, in which Gross and his accomplices billed $274 million in illegal medication to Medicaid and other health care agencies, prosecutors said.
The scheme exposed patients to drugs "of unknown origin and potency" and, in some cases "drugs which were mislabeled" or which had "potentially expired," New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman said in a statement Tuesday.
Gross was convicted Monday in a jury trial in state Supreme Court in Suffolk, found guilty of first-degree grand larceny, first-degree attempted grand larceny, first-degree criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions, first-degree attempted criminal diversion of prescription medications and prescriptions, three counts of first-degree money laundering, second-degree money laundering, first-degree commercial bribing and fourth-degree conspiracy.
He faces 8 1/3 to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 8, authorities said.
The shell company Gross used to conceal and distribute criminal proceeds also was found guilty of three counts of first-degree money laundering and one count each of second-degree money laundering and first-degree commercial bribing, authorities said.
A co-defendant, Glenn Schabel of Melville, described by authorities as the supervising pharmacist and compliance officer for the Melville-based MOMS pharmacy, pleaded guilty to his role in the scheme in March, admitting that over a four-year period he had accepted more than $5 million in bribes.
Authorities said Gross' wife, Lois Gross, and their adult children Dakota Gross and Chelsea Gross, remain civil defendants in a forfeiture action brought by the attorney general's office, which seeks the return "of proceeds and substituted proceeds" from the scheme held in their names.
Authorities said that Gross and Chapparal Services Ltd. illegally obtained medications through MOMS, described as "a high-volume online pharmacy" in Melville, with satellite offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn and in other states. They then "dispensed the illegally obtained medication to Medicaid recipients" _ all while billing the state Medicaid program.
Those medications were obtained, authorities charged, through illegal buybacks from patients, as well as through other illegal sources, then were rebottled using fake labels and serial numbers. Such medications can have broken seals or can even contain medications "different" from what's indicated on the label, authorities said _ all of which can put patients at significant risk.
In his statement, Schneiderman said, "As a licensed pharmacist, Gross understood the regulations of pharmaceutical distribution and knew how to evade them."
