A former employee of a dental practice in St. Albans, Vermont was sentenced in December 2021 in federal court in Burlington after pleading guilty to conspiring to acquire controlled substances by fraud and to theft in connection with healthcare. According to court records, between April and November 2016 the employee worked with another employee of the practice to generate fake prescriptions for controlled substances and to forge the signature of a licensed prescriber.
The forged prescriptions, which typically were for oxycodone, were filled by the employee and others at several pharmacies in the area. Investigators identified 46 fake prescriptions in total. Separately, between May 2016 and August 2017, the employee embezzled $71,942.60 from the practice by manipulating and falsifying payment records in the practice's billing software.
The prescription fraud was uncovered through a Drug Enforcement Administration drug diversion investigation, while the St. Albans Police Department's work brought the embezzlement to light. The U.S. Border Patrol and the Franklin County Sheriff's Department also assisted.
The court imposed a sentence of five years of probation, running concurrently on each count, and ordered the former employee to pay $71,942.60 in restitution to the former employer.