CLEARFIELD – A Clearfield pharmacist was suspended for a period of four years because he pleaded guilty to felony charges in a federal court.
According to court documents, 45-year-old Eric Vern Fox of Clearfield, Clearfield County, was suspended for a period of four years because he pleaded guilty to felony charges in a federal court.
Fox pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy, in violation of federal money laundering laws, according to U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger.
According to the charges, from June of 2002 until September of 2007, Fox owned and operated two compounding pharmacies in the eastern district of Pennsylvania – the Medicine Shoppe, located at 578 Lancaster Ave., Berwyn, and Compounding Rx Apothecary, located at 81 Lancaster Ave., Store No. 4, Malvern.
The indictment alleges that from June of 2002 until September of 2007, Fox agreed with the owners and operators of an illegal Internet pharmacy, the Madison Pain Clinic, to compound millions of hydrocodone pills that the Madison Pain Clinic sold to Internet customers under fraudulent “prescriptions,” outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose.
The money laundering charge to which Fox pleaded guilty alleges that between June of 2002 and September of 2007, Fox was paid by the Madison Pain Clinic for the hydrocodone pills that the clinic sold to its internet customers, and agreed to launder the proceeds of this illegal activity totaling at least $4,500,000.
The plea agreement calls for Fox to receive an agreed-upon sentence of 12 months and a day in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The plea agreement also requires Fox to forfeit the sum of $2,000,000 and pay an assessment of $100.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of State, the state Board of Pharmacy has suspended Fox’s license for four years.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division.