{"id":19068,"date":"2019-04-23T17:43:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T01:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/drug-distributor-and-former-execs-face-first-criminal-charges-in-opioid-crisis\/"},"modified":"2019-04-23T17:43:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-24T01:43:00","slug":"drug-distributor-and-former-execs-face-first-criminal-charges-in-opioid-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/drug-distributor-and-former-execs-face-first-criminal-charges-in-opioid-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug Distributor And Former Execs Face First Criminal Charges In Opioid Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Richard Gonzales<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n <\/a><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n Enlarge this image<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Former Rochester Drug Co-Operative CEO Laurence Doud III, facing criminal charges stemming from the opioid crisis, leaves the federal courthouse in Manhattan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kathy Willens\/AP<\/p>\n

<\/b>
\n hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Kathy Willens\/AP<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

A major pharmaceutical distribution company and two of its former executives are facing criminal charges<\/a> for their roles in advancing the nation’s opioid crisis and profiting from it.<\/p>\n

Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc., one of the nation’s 10 largest pharmaceutical distributors in the U.S., its former CEO Laurence Doud III<\/a> and former chief of compliance William Pietruszewski<\/a> were charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled narcotics \u2014 oxycodone and fentanyl \u2014 for non-medical reasons and conspiracy to defraud the United States.<\/p>\n

RDC and Pietruszewski are also charged with willfully failing to file suspicious order reports to the Drug Enforcement Administration.<\/p>\n

Between May 2012 and November 2016, the company received and filled over 1.5 million orders for controlled substances from its pharmacy customers. However, it reported only four suspicious orders to the DEA. According to the complaint<\/a>, the company failed to report at least 2,000 suspicious orders.<\/p>\n

“This prosecution is the first of its kind: executives of a pharmaceutical distributor and the distributor itself have been charged with drug trafficking, trafficking the same drugs that are fueling the opioid epidemic that is ravaging this country,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman said in a statement<\/a>. “Our Office will do everything in its power to combat this epidemic, from street-level dealers to the executives who illegally distribute drugs from their boardrooms.”<\/p>\n

\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n Enlarge this image<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Geoffrey Berman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, speaking at a news conference announcing charges against Rochester Drug Co-Operative Inc.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mary Altaffer\/AP<\/p>\n

<\/b>
\n hide caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/b><\/b>\n <\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Mary Altaffer\/AP<\/p>\n

<\/span>\n<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Pietruszewski, 53, pleaded guilty last week. Doud, 75, surrendered to authorities and pleaded not guilty<\/a> in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday.<\/p>\n