California Pharmacist Sentenced: Forged

What Happened

Gevork Danielian, a pharmacist who owned and operated A&G Care Pharmacy in Winnetka, California, was sentenced in February 2023 to 24 months in federal prison and fined $100,000. He pleaded guilty in November 2022 to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances. The release states that from April to December 2018 he filled prescriptions bearing forged physician signatures for fictitious patients, including hydrocodone, oxycodone, methamphetamine salts, and alprazolam, knowing the drugs would be illicitly sold. In November 2020, the California State Board of Pharmacy placed him on probation for four years.

“Danielian pleaded guilty in November 2022 to one count of conspiracy to distributed controlled substances.”
U.S. Department of Justice / U.S. Attorney's Office press release, Feb 14, 2023

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, Feb 14, 2023

Case at a Glance

Setting: Retail pharmacy
Drug: Hydrocodone, oxycodone, methamphetamine salts, alprazolam
Method: Filled forged prescriptions for fictitious patients
Status: Sentenced February 2023 to 24 months in federal prison and a $100,000 fine; pleaded guilty November 2022

Source: U.S. Department of Justice

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Where this record connects to the site's working material. Links are chosen from the case's setting, drug and method fields.

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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

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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

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