A former physician assistant at a Fountain Valley medical clinic was sentenced Monday to 46 months in federal prison for selling prescriptions for the opioid painkiller oxycodone without a medical purpose, knowing the drugs would be sold on the street.
Raif Wadie Iskander, 56, formerly of Ladera Ranch, but who now lives in Montana, pleaded guilty in November 2020 to one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.
From 2018 to April 2019, Iskander, who was a licensed physician assistant in California, wrote prescriptions for purported “patients” he had never met or examined. Iskander provided to drug dealers multiple prescriptions that he had signed, but with the patient names left blank, to be filled in later.
In exchange for cash, Iskander wrote fraudulent oxycodone prescriptions for co-defendant Johnny Gilbert “M.J.” Alvarez, 42, of Santa Ana, who sold the prescribed drugs on the street as well as to an undercover officer.
Iskander knew that the oxycodone filled from the prescriptions would be sold to drug customers who were not using the oxycodone for legitimate medical purposes and whom he had never met or examined, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Alvarez pleaded guilty this past November to one count of distribution of methamphetamine and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 13 in Santa Ana federal court.
Source: Orange County Register
Be First to Comment