Dallas doctor gets 13 years in prison for giving fake patients opioids, Xanax through sham clinics

[TexasTowelie]

A Dallas doctor has been sentenced to 13 years in federal prison for taking part in a scheme to prescribe nearly a million doses of painkillers and anti-anxiety drugs with no legitimate medical purpose.

A jury convicted Carlos Luis Venegas, 62, of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in February. He was sentenced Monday.

Authorities said Venegas acted as the supervising doctor for a number of "sham" medical clinics that were fronts for distributing the painkiller hydrocodone and the sedative alprazolam, also sold as Xanax.

Witnesses testified that co-conspirators paid homeless people to pose as patients, coached them on how to describe their symptoms, drove them to the clinics and paid for the visits.

Read more: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/courts/2019/05/14/dallas-doctor-gets-13-years-prison-giving-fake-patientsopioids-xanax-sham-clinics

[Paladin]

1. So often, it's the older doctors who engage in this sort of crime.

The ones who need money because their practices have fallen off.

That's not ageism on my part, it's the truth. Ask any active pharmacist---they learn who the dope-pushing docs are in their communities, in a big hurry.