Pawan Kumar Jain, Prescription Drug Trafficking, New Mexico 2009

A federal grand jury has returned an indictment charging Pawan Kumar Jain, 61, of Las Cruces, N.M., with the unlawful dispensing of opioid pain medication and health care fraud charges.

Jain was arrested without incident earlier today by the DEA and FBI. He is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court in Las Cruces at 8:30 a.m. tomorrow.

The 111-count indictment, which was publicly posted following Jain's arrest, charges Jain with 61 counts of unlawfully dispensing controlled substances and 50 counts of health care fraud.

According to the indictment, Jain allegedly committed the offenses charged between April 2009 and June 2010, in Doña Ana County, N.M. At the time, Jain was a licensed physician with a neurology subspecialty who operated a pain management medical practice in Las Cruces.

Jain's medical license was suspended in June 2012 and subsequently revoked in Dec. 2012 by the New Mexico Medical Board.

Each of the 61 dispensing charges alleges that Jain unlawfully dispensed prescription painkillers, primarily Oxycodone and methadone, to patients outside the usual course of medical practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.

The maximum statutory penalty for a conviction on each of the 61 dispensing charges is 20 years in prison and a $1,000,000 fine.

The 50 health care fraud charges allege that Jain engaged in a scheme to defraud two health care benefit programs, Medicare and Medicaid, by submitting claims for payment for prescription medications he dispensed to patients outside the usual course of medical practice and without legitimate medical purpose.

The maximum statutory penalty for a conviction on each of the health care fraud charges is ten years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Four counts in the indictment, Counts 1 through 4, expose Jain to enhanced sentencing because the criminal conduct allegedly resulted in the deaths of two patients.

The statutory penalty for a conviction on each of Counts 1 and 3, which allege the unlawful dispensing of a controlled substance resulting in death, is a mandatory minimum 20 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.

The statutory penalty for a conviction on each of Counts 2 and 4, which allege health care fraud resulting in death, is life imprisonment.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-nm/pr/pawan-kumar-jain-arrested-charges-unlawfully-dispensing-prescription-drugs-and-health