Brooklyn Doctor Sentenced to 10 Years

What Happened

Ruvim Krupkin, a former New York state-licensed internal medicine doctor who practiced at a medical office in Brooklyn, was sentenced in September 2021 for conspiring to distribute oxycodone unlawfully. According to court documents, from 2006 to July 2017 he prescribed over four million oxycodone pills to individuals he knew had no legitimate medical need, charging each patient $200 in cash per visit. He pleaded guilty on September 24, 2020. The court imposed 120 months in prison and one year of supervised release, and ordered a $500,000 fine and forfeiture of $124,000.

“prescribed over four million oxycodone pills to individuals he knew had no legitimate medical need for the pills”
U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Sep 21, 2021

Related Guidance

15 Red Flags of Drug Diversion — Behavioral and transactional indicators of diversion.
Investigation Playbook — How to investigate suspected diversion inside an organization.

Sources

U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Sep 21, 2021

Case at a Glance

Setting: Medical clinic
Drug: Oxycodone
Method: Prescribed medically unnecessary oxycodone to patients in exchange for $200 cash per visit
Status: Pleaded guilty September 24, 2020; sentenced September 2021 to 120 months in prison, one year supervised release, $500,000 fine and $124,000 forfeiture

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

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Last reviewed: September 2026 · Educational content, not legal advice.

About the author

DivertGuard is built and maintained by Alex Rodriguez, MHIIM, CPhT (also known as Jesus Rodriguez) — a drug diversion prevention program manager with more than a decade in pharmacy practice, including direct responsibility for a health-system controlled substance diversion prevention program.

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2025 — The Rounding Revolution: A High-Tech Approach to Diversion Prevention (with Emily Spiceland, PharmD)
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Credentials

Doctorate candidate — Doctor of Health Informatics (DHI), Rutgers University, School of Health Professions; research on health data analytics and the prediction of cognitive decline
MHIIM — master's in health informatics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center (2019–2021)
CPhT — Certified Pharmacy Technician, with 10+ years of pharmacy practice across retail, hospice, compounding, home-health, and hospital settings

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Related Resources

Diversion Settlements & Fines

Settlements, civil penalties and criminal fines paid by hospitals and pharmacies in documented drug diversion cases, with the amount, year and primary source for each

Penalty Outcomes in the Case Records

Counts of the outcomes the registry records state: prison, probation, fines, licence actions and restitution, with stated sentence lengths by band and by drug class

Registry Insights: Sentences, Fines, States and Outcomes

Sentence lengths, fines and restitution, cases per 100,000 pharmacists by state, and plea and licence outcomes, each counted from the case records with its n, plus charts of cases by year, state and drug class

Brooklyn Doctor Sentenced to 10 Years in Oxycodone Pill Mill