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Ex-Podiatrist Sentenced In White Plains Court For Selling Oxycodone

A 65-year-old former podiatrist with a history of legal difficulties was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for illegally selling Oxycodone prescriptions for cash, authorities said.

Frederick Weintraub.

Frederick Weintraub.

Photo Credit: Bergen County Prosecutor

The defendant, Frederick Weintraub, a resident of Upper Saddle River, N.J., was a podiatrist who wrote and sold multiple prescriptions for Oxycodone, an opiate and controlled substance, in a parking lot in Rockland County.

Weintraub, who pleaded guilty to one count of distributing an illegal controlled substance Aug. 5, was sentenced in White Plains federal court by U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas.

The announcement of Weintraub’s fate came in a joint statement issued by Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; James Hunt, the special agent in charge of the New York Field Division of the DEA; George P. Beach II, the superintendent of the New York State Police; George N. Longworth, commissioner of the Westchester County Police Department; and James P. O’Neill, commissioner of the New York City Police Department.

“Illegally diverted prescription opiates feed the vicious cycle of addiction and abuse that is devastating too many of our communities,” Bharara said. “As a doctor, Frederick Weintraub was supposed to care for the health of his patients, not help fuel the country’s most acute health crisis.”

Beach, noting that Oxycodone “is a highly addictive, often abused medication,” echoed Bharara’s view.

“By illegally selling prescriptions for these painkillers,” Beach said, “Frederick Weintraub put the community he served at risk.”

According to the complaint and information filed in White Plains federal court, as well as statements made in connection with the plea and sentencing proceedings, Weintraub was a podiatrist whose medical license was permanently suspended in 2014.

Following the suspension, Weintraub began illegally selling prescriptions for controlled substances in exchange for cash, prosecutors said.

Between November 2015 and January 2016, Weintraub sold at least seven prescriptions for Oxycodone, at prices ranging between $500 and $700 per prescription, to an individual who was cooperating with authorities. The individual made recordings of several purchases and provided the prescriptions he purchased to law enforcement, prosecutors said.

Each sale took place in Weintraub’s car, which was parked in the lot of a Rockland County hotel, and had no connection to any medical examination, according to prosecutors.

During the sales, Weintraub negotiated prices and attempted to arrange a long-term relationship with the customer in which Weintraub would provide weekly Oxycodone prescriptions to the customer, who would then fill the prescriptions and resell the pills at a premium, prosecutors said.

“A doctor selling prescriptions for cash in a hotel parking lot is a drug dealer perpetuating one of America’s number one health threats – opioid abuse,” said Hunt.

In addition to his prison term, Weintraub was sentenced to two years of supervised release.

Bharara praised the work of the DEA’s Tactical Diversion Squad, which is comprised of agents and officers from the DEA, the NYPD, 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.

In addition, Bharara thanked the Town of Montvale Police Department and Town of New Windsor Police Department for their assistance in the investigation.

“The successful investigation into Frederick Weintraub is just the latest example of the great partnership that exists among federal, state, county and local law enforcement in our region,” said Longworth. “The Westchester County Police remains firmly committed to continuing our participation in these joint task forces. They are a critical way to combat the distribution and sale of illegal narcotics in our communities.”

The prosecution of the case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division.

Assistant United States Attorney Maurene Comey is in charge of the case.

The drug allegations are far from the only legal troubles Weintraub has faced in recent years.

As reported in The Daily Voice, Weintraub was charged by police in Northvale, N.J., with fondling a patient’s breasts in 2012.

He was also accused of touching the breasts of one of his former patients, who was working alongside him as a staff member at an assisted living facility at the time of that alleged incident.

Weintraub’s license was suspended by New Jersey’s Board of Medical Examiners in connection with the allegations.

To read the story on those cases, click here.

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