Physician, heal thy self!
A Gramercy Park psychiatrist who went on TV and accused Lindsay Lohan’s doctor of turning her into a pill-popping drug addict was busted today — for allegedly selling oxycodone prescriptions for cash.
William Belfar, who was nabbed by the feds in an FBI undercover sting, discussed the perils of overusing prescription drugs while appearing as a talking head in a May segment with KOB-4 News in New Mexico.
He called Lohan “the poster child” for overusing prescription drugs, adding that Rush Limbaugh and Macaulay Culkin are also among the A-list abusers.
“Her family doctor prescribed [oxycodone] to [Lohan] and essentially turned her into a drug addict,” he had told KOB-4 News. He did not name the doctor and described oxycodone as a “pill form of heroin.”
In an earlier TV interview in February, the shrink talked about “a celebrity” who became addicted to oxycodone, the complaint says without mentioning the celeb.
He said the pills were “given to her by her drug dealer. And in this particular situation, her drug dealer was her family doctor”
He then told the TV audience: “I have a very important question … is your doctor turning you into a drug addict?”
In a March 29 TV interview, Belfar called oxycodone “big business, adding that “on the street each pill is $30. Patients will pay a lot to get these pills,” the complaint says.
Belfar is accused of peddling oxycodone prescriptions for cash on three occasions, once in 2011 and twice this year.
Belfar allegedly started his off-the-books RX writing in Massachusetts. A confidential informant told the feds he took “trips” there in 2010 to meet up with the shrink, shelling out $1,000 for prescriptions for 120 oxycodone 30 milligram tablets, the complaint says.
One some occasions, Belfar even sold pre-filled unlabeled bottles of the same dosage for $1,200.
Belfar opted to move the “business” from Massachuttes to his Manhattan Medical and Psychiatric Services office on East 28th Street after learning an unnamed co-conspirator’s wife was a cop and became scared he’d get busted.
On Jan. 8, the informant and an undercover FBI agent visited Belfar’s office wearing hidden cameras. Speaking to Belfar alone, the informant asked if they could do “the same thing we did before.” After Belfar responded, “we can,” he agreed to sell 120 tablets of oxycodone for $1,000 — slipping several hundred bills the informant handed him in his pants pocket, the complaint says.
Belfar also boasted “I have a whole oxycodone pain clinic now.”
The informant then asked the shrink if he can “do one for” the undercover agent for $1,000 — and he agreed.
On April 2, the agent and other undercover agent arrived at Belfar’s offices wearing hidden cameras and X-ray films of their necks and back — films that showed no physical injuries, the complaint says.
During the visit, Belfar agreed to sell one agent a prescription for 120 oxycodone pills and other medication for $1000. He then met with the second undercover agent, first telling him he’d sell him a prescription for 90 oxycodone pills for $1000 — before dropping the price to $500.
“I only charge a thousand to people I don’t like,” he said. “I try to get them not to comeback … but it usually doesn’t work.”
Belfar was released on $250,000 bond after appearing before a magistrate judge in Manhattan federal court.
He later told the Post outside, “I’m innocent. I’m very innocent” but would not elaborate.