A doctor was slapped with a 55-count indictment today on charges he allegedly sold prescriptions of oxycodone and other highly addictive pain killers to drug dealers from his Manhattan and Rockland County offices, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced.
The indictment also charges Dr. David Brizer with illegally possessing controlled substances and underreporting his income by at least $500,000 on his state personal income tax returns for 2011 and 2010.
According to the indictment, Brizer, 60, charged his customers up to $300 each time he sold them illegally sold prescriptions for several millions of dollars worth of pills out of his offices at 48 Burd Street in Nyack and 244 W. 54th St. in Manhattan.
“Instead of saving lives, Dr. Brizer used his position to supply drug dealers and feeds a prescription drug epidemic that is devastating families across our state,” Schneiderman said.
“The message is clear – whether you are a doctor or a criminal on the street, my office will prosecute those profiting off the cycle of abuse.”
Brizer is charged with two counts of criminal tax fraud, 34 counts of criminal sale of a prescription of a controlled substance, 15 counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of offering a false instrument for filing, as well as a scheme to defraud and conspiracy charges. All are felony counts and he faces up to seven years in prison.
Brizer allegedly issued fraudulent prescriptions for fake patient, or those in the names of people who had no knowledge he was doing so.