Kumi Frimpong, Conspiracy to Illegally Distribute Oxycodone, Texas 2016

DALLAS, Texas — A licensed pharmacist, Kumi Frimpong, who owned and operated the Cornerstone Pharmacy in Desoto, Texas, has pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge stemming from his involvement in a pill mill operation, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Specifically, Frimpong, 56, of Dallas, who was the pharmacist in charge at Cornerstone Pharmacy, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater to one count of conspiracy to illegally distribute oxycodone. Frimpong also agreed to surrender $41,112 to the United States that constitute proceeds from dispensing oxycodone during the conspiracy.

He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine. Sentencing is set for mid-December.

Frimpong admitted that during the conspiracy, which began in January 2013 and continued through July 2014, he and his co-conspirators distributed and caused to be distributed at least 40,000 30mg oxycodone pills in Dallas, and elsewhere that he dispensed based on prescriptions issued in the name and DEA registration number of co-conspirator, Dr. Richard Andrews of McAllen Medical Clinic.

After their arrests in January 2016, Dr. Andrews and co-defendant pharmacists Frimpong and Ndufola Kigham were ordered to surrender their DEA registration numbers, preventing Dr. Andrews from issuing prescriptions for controlled substances and Frimpong and Kigham from dispensing controlled substances. Frimpong and Kigham also surrendered their stock of controlled substances that they had at their pharmacies to DEA.

A co-conspirator in the case, Muhammad Faridi, 40, who is not a physician but who was also a part owner of the McAllen Medical Clinic, pleaded guilty last month to the conspiracy. He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 18, 2016.

This Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation is being conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with assistance from Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Louisiana State Police, the Grand Prairie Police Department, the Dallas Police Department, the Houston Police Department, the Arlington Police Department, the Greenville Police Department, the Parker County Sheriff’s Office, and the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

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