Case Database
Filter every documented case by date, drug, state, setting, role, prosecution status, and penalty. Search accepts brand or generic drug names, facility names, and cities.
Showing 17 of 730 cases.
| Case / When | Where | Setting | Drug | Method | Role | Prosecution status | Penalty | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Former Nurse Practitioner Pleads Guilty to Redistributing Patients' Unused Opioid Pills
2026-04-13
|
New York Auburn, New York |
Nurse practitioner, medical practice with offices in Auburn and Fulton, NY | Oxycodone and other prescribed controlled substances — 32g of oxycodone found Feb 22, 2022 | Collected unused prescribed drugs returned by patients (not authorized under federal law), redistributed them to other patients as loose pills without a prescription or medical documentation, without checking NY's I-STOP monitoring program | not stated | Pleaded guilty Apr 9, 2026 to possessing controlled substances with intent to distribute; sentencing set for Aug 18, 2026, plea agreement calls for 52 months + 3 yrs supervised release | none documented | source |
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Long Island pharmaceutical employee sentenced to six years for stealing thousands of oxycodone pills from employer
2024-05-31
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New York | not stated | Oxycodone, described as thousands of pills | not stated | Former employee of a Suffolk County-based pharmaceutical employer | not stated | none documented | source |
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Ulster County Dentist Pleads Guilty to Fraudulently Obtaining Oxycodone in a Patient's Name
2022-04-14
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New York Stone Ridge, New York |
Dentist, Stone Ridge, NY practice | Oxycodone | Fraudulently submitted an oxycodone prescription in a patient's name and date of birth for a patient she was not treating, then filled it at a Woodstock, NY pharmacy for her own use | not stated | Pleaded guilty Apr 14, 2022 to acquiring a controlled substance by fraud; agreed to surrender medical license and DEA registration eligibility; sentencing set for Aug 25, 2022 | $100,000 (civil settlement) | source |
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Nurse Arrested for Stealing 1,400+ Vials of Fentanyl from Long Island Hospital
2021-05-18
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New York Manhasset, New York |
Nurse, cardiac unit, North Shore University Hospital (Manhasset, NY) | Fentanyl — 1,467 vials + midazolam — 223 vials | Used her fingerprint and ID number to access a medication dispensing machine 50+ times over ~2.5 months, noting a patient's name against each withdrawal though none of the drugs were administered to patients | not stated | Arrested and arraigned May 18, 2021 on state charges incl. 3rd-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, grand larceny, and falsifying business records | none documented | source |
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Roswell Park Cancer Center Nurse Tampered with Patients' Hydromorphone
2021-03-10
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New York Buffalo, New York |
Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (Buffalo, NY) | Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) dispensing-machine vials | Canceled dispensing transactions, removed drug, refilled vials with water | not stated | Pleaded guilty Mar 10, 2021; caused waterborne infections in 6 patients | none documented | source |
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New York Psychiatrist Pleads Guilty to Diverting Medication Using Patient's Children's Identities
2020-09-17
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New York Clifton Park, New York |
Psychiatrist, private practice (Clifton Park, NY) | Methylphenidate (Ritalin); ketamine (separate civil matter) | Arranged for a patient to kick back part of his own methylphenidate prescriptions, then used the patient's children's identities to obtain additional prescriptions for himself | not stated | Pleaded guilty Sept. 17, 2020 to unlawful drug distribution and misuse of personal information; surrendered his medical license; also settled a related civil ketamine-recordkeeping claim for $43,225.24 | $43,225 (civil penalty) | source |
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Buffalo-Area Medical Office Manager Sentenced for Stealing Controlled Substances via Forged Prescriptions
2020-09-17
|
New York Buffalo, New York |
Office manager, physician's practice (Williamsville/Buffalo, NY) | Hydrocodone and oxycodone — 166 fraudulent prescriptions, ~11,885 dosage units | Used the physician's prescription pad and electronic prescribing token to issue fraudulent scripts in her own name, associates' names, and fictitious patients, then filled them at local pharmacies | not stated | Convicted of obtaining a controlled substance by fraud; sentenced Sept. 17, 2020 to two years' probation and $1,911.23 restitution | $1,911 (restitution) | source |
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Buffalo-Area Physician Diverted Controlled Substances Through Fraudulent Prescriptions to Associates
2020-03-05
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New York Buffalo, New York |
Physician contracted to area hospitals; fraudulent prescriptions issued outside legitimate patient care | Oxycodone, hydrocodone, and amphetamine | Issued fraudulent prescriptions in his own name and in the names of non-patients (coworkers, associates) in exchange for cocaine, cash, and a share of the pills | not stated | Pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances; sentencing scheduled | none documented | source |
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Queens Supervising Pharmacist Sentenced for Filling Forged Oxycodone Prescriptions
2019-08-30
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New York Richmond Hill, Queens, New York |
Retail pharmacy | Oxycodone 30 mg tablets | Supervising pharmacist knowingly filled forged prescriptions and sold additional pills for cash outside any valid prescription | not stated | Sentenced to 4 years in prison; pharmacist license surrendered | none documented | source |
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Long Island pharmacy chain settled claims it failed to timely report controlled substance losses and thefts
2018-06-28
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New York | Pharmacy stores in Nassau and Suffolk counties, Long Island | Hydrocodone and other controlled substances | not stated | Retail pharmacy chain | not stated | none documented | source |
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Hudson Valley nurse surrendered licenses after admitting unordered medication withdrawals she could not account for
2017-03
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New York | not stated | not stated | not stated | Licensed practical nurse and registered professional nurse | not stated | none documented | source |
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Wayne County LPN Sentenced to Jail for Diverting Oxycodone from Nursing Home Patients
2016-01-06
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New York Newark, NY |
Nursing home (DeMay Living Center, Newark, NY) | Oxycodone and other narcotic pills | Falsified medication administration records for 14 residents while diverting the pills for personal use | not stated | Pleaded guilty June 2015; sentenced to 99 days in jail January 6, 2016 after violating plea conditions | none documented | source |
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Southern Tier LPN Pleads Guilty to Diverting Percocet from Nursing Home Patients
2015-08-12
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New York Horseheads, NY |
Nursing home (Elcor Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Horseheads, NY) | Percocet (oxycodone-acetaminophen) | Falsified records indicating narcotics were administered to eight residents while diverting the pills for personal use | not stated | Pleaded guilty August 12, 2015 to falsifying business records, petit larceny, and criminal possession of a controlled substance | none documented | source |
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Hospital Settles Adderall Diversion Allegations Involving Medical Residents — New York, 2013
2013-09-20
|
New York Brooklyn, New York |
New York Methodist Hospital, Brooklyn, NY | Adderall (amphetamine) | Medical residents wrote 194 fraudulent Adderall prescriptions on hospital forms | not stated | Civil consent judgment; no admission of wrongdoing | $70,000 (civil settlement) | source |
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Westchester pharmacy technician charged with trafficking oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam after DEA parking-lot arrest
2011-12-21
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New York | not stated | Over 350 oxycodone, hydrocodone and alprazolam tablets seized | not stated | Pharmacy technician at a pharmacy in Mohegan Lake, NY | not stated | none documented | source |
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Rochester nurse admitted diverting morphine and hydromorphone through fraudulent dispensing-cabinet entries
2001-11-09
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New York | not stated | Morphine and/or Dilaudid (hydromorphone) | Fraudulent withdrawals from an automated dispensing cabinet using patient identification numbers | Registered professional nurse (also held LPN license) | not stated | none documented | source |
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New York practical nurse surrendered license after admitting diversion of Fioricet for personal use
1999-11-05
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New York | Not specified in board summary (licensee of Rome, NY) | Fioricet (controlled substance) | not stated | Licensed practical nurse | not stated | none documented | source |
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What each column does and doesn't cover
Every case states When (date) and Where (state) — 730 of 730. Beyond that, a blank cell means the source record does not state that fact, not that it did not happen:
- Setting: stated in 649 of 730 cases (89%)
- Drug: stated in 657 of 730 cases (90%)
- Method: stated in 474 of 730 cases (65%)
- Prosecution status: stated in 474 of 730 cases (65%); a documented penalty (fine, settlement, or restitution) exists for 77 of 730 cases (11%)
- Role: stated in only 255 of 730 cases (35%) — filtering or sorting by role silently hides the rest of the registry, which may still describe the same role in prose without a structured field
Why: documented failure modes
A separate text analysis of the 723 case summaries found 371 cases (51.3%) matching at least one named failure-mode pattern below. 352 cases (48.7% of 723) matched none of these categories - most of these are short board-order summaries ("licensee diverted controlled substances from their employer") that state an outcome without describing a mechanism, not cases where no failure occurred. A case can match zero, one, or several categories — these are corpus-level counts, not a per-case tag, and are not used as a row filter above: reproducing the exact category membership per case from the stored patterns did not exactly match this file's hand-curated counts on independent re-check, so no individual case here is labeled with a "why" that this code cannot verify.
Text names an act of replacing/refilling the drug with a named substitute (saline, water, an OTC pill, a cleaning product, etc.), OR uses swap/dilute/tamper to describe the same act, so the altered container went back into use looking unchanged.
Text uses stole/stealing/embezzled to describe removal of controlled substances.
Text uses a form of "falsif-" within 60 characters of a record-type noun (chart, inventory, transaction, receipt, prescription, etc.).
Text explicitly characterizes the prescription(s) as fraudulent, forged, invalid, or issued outside legitimate medical practice (including "pill mill" language).
Text names an automated dispensing cabinet/machine, or the acronym ADC, as part of the mechanism.
Text describes recording or claiming drug as "waste" (when it was not), pulling drug from a waste stream, or wastage that was not independently witnessed.
Text describes cancelling, voiding, or falsely entering a system transaction (an order, a return-to-stock entry, a cancel entry) specifically to conceal a removal.
Text states the FACILITY (not an individual concealing personal use) failed to maintain required inventory/records, or names a recordkeeping violation/negligent recordkeeping as the basis for the government action.
Text describes using a fictitious patient profile, a false name/identity, stolen patient information, or impersonating a licensed prescriber to obtain the drug.
Text states a failure to notify or report a loss, theft, or suspected diversion to a regulator.
Disclaimer
Case summaries are based on public records (DOJ press releases, court documents, news reports). Charges are allegations unless a conviction is noted. Analysis is educational, not legal advice.
Last reviewed: September 2026 · Content is educational, not legal advice.