A San Fernando Valley pharmacist who pleaded guilty to filling false narcotics prescriptions has been sentenced to 2 years in federal prison.
Gevork Danielian, a 41-year-old Granada Hills resident, worked as the pharmacist-in-charge for A&G Care Pharmacy, which he owned and operated in Winnetka from December 2014 to July 2020.
Prosecutors said from April 2018 to December 2018, Danielian conspired with others to illegally sell narcotics including hydrocodone, oxycodone, methamphetamine salts, and alprazolam, an anxiety medication sold under the brand name Xanax.
He pleaded guilty in November 2022 to one count of conspiring to distribute controlled substances.
A co-conspirator would obtain blank prescription papers, and Danielian would text the co-conspirator the names and birth dates of real patients, prosecutors said. The co-conspirator then brought the false prescriptions, along with the forged signature of physicians, to the pharmacist. Danielian would “fill” the prescriptions in exchange for money, despite knowing the drugs, instead of being used legitimately, would be illegally sold by his co-conspirator, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.
Danielian, who prosecutors said filled prescriptions for hundreds of pills of opioids and other narcotics during the conspiracy, was sentenced on Monday, February 13. He also was ordered to pay a $100,000 fine.
The California State Board of Pharmacy had previously placed him on four years of probation and discontinued his business.
“Pharmacists, by training and education, should be gatekeepers to help prevent abuse, addiction and overdose,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo, adding that Danielian “flouted this responsibility and instead became an agent of addiction and abuse.”
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