Oncologist sentenced to prison for selling cancer drugs in $17M scheme

An Oakland County physician who illegally offered most cancers medicine has been sentenced to jail and ordered to forfeit tens of millions of {dollars}.

Throughout a current listening to in federal courtroom in Detroit, U.S. District Decide Brandy McMillion sentenced 52-year-old Naveed Aslam, MD of West Bloomfield to 18 months in jail and ordered him to forfeit greater than $2.6 million he earned from his greater than $17 million legal scheme that diverted costly pharmaceuticals from sufferers.

Aslam, a licensed oncologist, pleaded responsible to fees associated to the unlawful enterprise performed via his medical follow, Somerset Hematology and Oncology, PC in Royal Oak. As said by the Division of Justice, courtroom paperwork present that the scheme ran from 2019 to 2024, throughout which Aslam and co-conspirators bought after which offered the prescribed drugs to 3rd events, who then resold them to others. Aslam was legally restricted to utilizing the medicine solely in his medical follow and was prohibited by regulation from promoting them or shifting them exterior the FDA’s provide chain, which “ensures the protection and efficacy of the medicine,” the DOJ stated in a information launch.

The medicine are used to deal with a number of cancers, together with metastatic cancers of the cervix, breast, bladder and urinary tract, and are extremely poisonous and require particular remedy, the DOJ stated.

Though the plan uncovered sufferers to threat, there is no such thing as a proof that it induced affected person hurt, the DOJ stated.

“Dr. Aslam’s actions signify a critical breach of belief and a harmful exploitation of the well being care system for monetary acquire,” Mario M. Pinto, Particular Agent in Cost of the U.S. Division of Well being and Human Providers in Chicago, stated within the press launch. “By diverting most cancers medicine meant for susceptible sufferers, he not solely broke the regulation, but in addition endangered lives. (We) will proceed to work with our regulation enforcement companions to analyze and maintain accountable those that compromise affected person security and the integrity of our federal well being care packages.”

Jennifer Runyan, Particular Agent in Cost of the FBI Detroit Area Workplace, stated: “Dr. Naveed Aslam’s reckless and deliberate actions not solely enabled illegal revenue, but in addition created the danger of most cancers medicine going to people who weren’t meant to obtain them. The conviction displays the intense penalties that comply with when these charged with affected person care violate the obligations of their career. Working with our regulation enforcement companions and the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace for the Japanese District of Michigan, this scheme was disrupted and strengthens the FBI’s dedication to defending the American individuals continues.”