Adolph Harper, Jr., Illegal Prescription of Painkillers, Ohio 2023

Akron Doctor Pleads Guilty to Illegally Prescribing Painkillers

An investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Health and Human Services -- Office of the Inspector General, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy and the Akron Police Department has led to the conviction of an Akron physician for illegally prescribing hundreds of thousands of doses of painkillers.

Adolph Harper, Jr., 64, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to traffic drugs, four counts of health care fraud and 16 counts of drug trafficking. He is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 27.

Harper's actions destroyed lives and families, according to Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, who stated: 'Doctor Harper is simply a drug dealer who happened to wear a white coat and worked from a medical office instead of a street corner.'

Adolph Harper distributed hundreds of thousands of doses of prescription medications, including Oxycontin, Percocet, Roxicet, Opana, and others, from his medical office in Akron between 2009 and 2012. His customers, many of whom were drug addicts exhibiting clear signs of drug addiction during their visits to his office, received 'prescriptions' for addictive prescription medications without being examined by Harper and often without seeing him at all.

Despite learning that some of his customers had died from overdose-related deaths, Harper continued to distribute prescriptions for controlled substances. His conspirators, Adria Harper, Patricia Laughman, and Tequilla Berry, also distributed prescriptions to these customers and used Harper's prescription pad to distribute prescriptions for addictive painkillers to themselves.

Adolph Harper executed four separate schemes to defraud health insurance providers, including submitting insurance claims for services using a higher billing code, submitting claims for unperformed services, billing for services after collecting cash, and causing the submission of claims for prescriptions issued outside the usual course of practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Margaret A. Sweeney, Edward F. Feran, and Rebecca C. Lutzko. The defendants have been charged with their crimes and are awaiting sentencing.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndoh/pr/akron-doctor-pleads-guilty-illegally-prescribing-painkillers