Steven A. Holper, Fentanyl Distribution, Nevada 2024

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Pain management doctor Steven A. Holper, 66, was arrested today and hit with a 29-count federal indictment for allegedly flooding Las Vegas clinics with fentanyl while falsifying patient records to cash in on Medicare and private insurers. The charges include seven counts of unlawful distribution of fentanyl and 22 counts of making false statements to health benefit programs, according to a Department of Justice announcement.

Holper, who operated a high-volume pain clinic in the city, is accused of prescribing Subsys — a powerful, fast-acting fentanyl spray — to patients who had no cancer diagnosis, directly violating FDA rules. Subsys is strictly limited to cancer patients suffering breakthrough pain and only available through a tightly controlled REMS program. Yet Holper allegedly handed it out like candy to non-cancer patients, treating chronic back pain and other conditions with a drug designed for terminal illness.

The indictment, unsealed today, alleges that from July 19, 2015, to March 12, 2016, Holper distributed fentanyl without any legitimate medical purpose and far outside accepted medical standards. Over an even longer stretch — November 21, 2013, to March 24, 2017 — he systematically lied to insurance providers, falsely certifying 22 patients as opioid-tolerant cancer sufferers eligible for Subsys, when they were not. Each false claim was a federal crime.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Illicit or misused, it’s a leading killer in America’s overdose epidemic. The DEA warns that even a tiny amount can be fatal. When doctors like Holper bypass safety protocols, they don’t just break the law — they feed the black market and put lives at risk, law enforcement officials say.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions didn’t mince words: ‘Some trusted medical professionals like doctors, nurses, and pharmacists have chosen to violate their oaths and exploit this crisis for cash—with devastating consequences.’ He tied Holper’s case to the DOJ’s broader opioid crackdown, highlighting the Opioid Fraud and Abuse Detection Unit’s role in uncovering billing scams and illegal prescriptions from Pittsburgh to Las Vegas.

‘The individual arrested today wholly neglected the public’s trust — he violated the Hippocratic Oath,’ said DEA Assistant Special Agent in Charge Dan Neill. ‘Deliberately prescribing addictive and dangerous opioids outside the course of legitimate medical practice is drug dealing, an act of betrayal masked as medicine.’ The FBI, HHS-OIG, and Henderson Police assisted in the investigation. Holper is now awaiting arraignment in federal court, facing decades behind bars if convicted.