A Metro Detroit-area doctor was sentenced to prison for his role in a scheme to unlawfully distribute more than 23,000 pills of oxycodone.
Alex Kafi, M.D., 70, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Victoria A. Roberts of the Eastern District of Michigan. Kafi pleaded guilty in August 2018 to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
“Betraying his duties as a licensed physician, Alex Kafi, accepted cash in exchange for writing medically unnecessary prescriptions for addictive opioids as part of a scheme that flooded Michigan with thousands of doses of oxycodone,” said Assistant Attorney General Benczkowski.
“Holding corrupt doctors accountable is critical to our ongoing efforts to combat the opioid epidemic nationwide and the Department of Justice will continue to aggressively pursue medical professionals like Alex Kafi.”
As part of his guilty plea, Kafi admitted that from 2013 through May 2017, he engaged in a scheme in which he wrote medically unnecessary prescriptions for oxycodone in exchange for cash Kafi wrote these fraudulent prescriptions often without ever meeting or communicating with the patient. Instead, Kafi conspired with patient recruiters who provided him with lists of patients, along with $300 per prescription of oxycodone, he admitted.
Kafi admitted the scheme involved approximately 693,000 mg of oxycodone. He agreed to forfeit $617,208.00, representing proceeds of his criminal activity.
Kafi’s co-defendant Danielle Smith was sentenced by Judge Roberts to serve 32 months in prison on Feb. 7. Additional co-defendant Cheryl Ozoh awaits sentencing. Smith and Ozoh each also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.