Rochester, N.Y. - Five people are under arrest in Rochester accused of being involved in an Oxycontin ring.
Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the arrests Thursday and said the suspects are accused of illegally obtaining and filling Oxycontin prescriptions for profit.
Authorities say one of the five defendants, Shantel Williams, is an office manager at a doctor’s office and had access to her employer's prescription pad.
Investigators say she wrote approximately 25 fraudulent prescriptions to her co-defendants for 80 mg doses of Oxycontin.
The felony complaint filed in the City of Rochester Criminal Court claims Williams along with Stacy Clark, Jessica Connolly, Anestacia Wilson, and Bettina Wilson acted in the fraud from, on, or about January 1, 2008 until December 31, 2010.
Authorities say in exchange for cash, the co-defendants went to several pharmacies in the City of Rochester and other locations in Monroe County, to fill the prescriptions provided to them by Williams, using their Medicaid benefit cards as a form of insurance payment.
Scheiderman said this scheme cost Medicaid and New York State thousands of dollars in losses.
"Feeding the cycle of abuse is unconscionable,” said Schneiderman. “Whether you are a medical professional, a Medicaid recipient, or a dealer on the street, my office will bring criminal charges against those who profit off of dangerous addictions and illegally traffic in prescription narcotics.”
The defendants are charged with third-degree grand larceny, first-degree falsifying business records and first-degree offering a false instrument for filing.
If convicted, they could face up to 2 1/3 – 7 years in state prison.
