A local physician is in federal custody on charges of illegally dispensing prescriptions for opioid painkillers and other controlled substances during two-minute telemedicine sessions with a convicted narcotics trafficker and others from across the United States.
Dr. Raphael Tomas Malikian, 36, who resides in Llano and Palmdale and called his medical practice Happy Family Medicine, was arrested Wednesday, Aug. 11, by special agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
An indictment naming Malikian was unsealed at his arraignment Thursday, when Malikian entered not guilty pleas and a federal magistrate judge in Los Angeles ordered him detained pending trial, which is currently scheduled for Oct. 5. The 11-count indictment alleges Malikian illegally distributed narcotics “while acting and intending to act outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.”
Seven of the counts allege the illegal distribution of opioids, such as oxycodone, and those charges each carry a penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison. The controlled substances that Malikian allegedly distributed are oxycodone, hydrocodone, alprazolam, promethazine and codeine.
The DEA investigation was prompted by multiple reports in February 2020 of suspicious prescriptions issued by Malikian. The indictment alleges specific incidents in which Malikian prescribed controlled substances without a medical purpose after seven telemedicine consultations — including one conducted entirely via text message — starting in April 2020 and continuing through July 2020. None of the consultations involved any physical exam or diagnostic tests, and the appointments lasted as little as two minutes and 20 seconds, prosecutors allege.
A federal judge on Thursday unsealed search warrants executed at Malikian’s residences in conjunction with his arrest. The affidavit in support of the search warrants outlines the DEA’s investigation, which included various undercover operations in which agents from the DEA and California Department of Justice posed as patients and received the prescriptions that form the basis of the indictment, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The DEA agent who authored the affidavit concluded that Malikian “effectively sells prescriptions for controlled substances to patients upon request, and does so without obtaining a patient’s medical history or conducting a physical examination.”
A DEA investigator reviewed patient records maintained by Malikian, which showed that he saw patients across the United States and that about 43% of them shared common addresses, email addresses, “caregivers” or phone numbers with other patients, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to the affidavit, one of those patients was a convicted narcotics trafficker and another was stopped at Los Angeles International Airport while carrying more than $19,000 in cash and about 1,764 hydrocodone and alprazolam pills.
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Samantha says
… you never see FEDs, going after the company making opioids, nor the pharmacies dispensing them. You never see FEDs, going after a campus physician at, Loma Linda or Kaiser Permanente.
DEA gone berserk, it’s far easier notching its holster singling-out, publicly humiliating and perp-walking an independent physician, for their amusement and merriment.
Onus is on the pharmacy, not the physician. By law, it’s the pharmacist who’s legally required substantiate a physician’s opioid script. If the pharmacist can’t substantiate a plausible reason for the prescription, the prescription doesn’t get filled.
FBI syndrome, setting up people for take-downs for the sake of doing take-downs, DEA cares less about opioid proliferation, more about its status, power and prestige.
Dottie says
FEDs know, entrapment’s next to impossible to prove. Not much money for a legal defense team, FEDs take advantage, specifically targeting the little people.
Larry says
If DEA agents, posing as patients, surreptitiously lied about their symptoms, it’s entrapment. If those prescriptions were never filled, then there are no damages to be assessed, and the physician has committed no tort.
Benjamin says
ANTIFA mentality, ransacking the little guy, it’s peculiar how desperate Feds have become, stooping to single-out and humiliate a small potatoes independent medical clinic, out in the middle of nowhere. This is something FEDs should have handed down to local authorities, for closer scrutiny.
Tim Scott says
It’s a federal crime. A “small potatoes” medical clinic doesn’t get a free pass on being a pill mill just because it is in the middle of nowhere.
William says
Why is this collection of newbie commentators so fired up about this?
They’re all speaking from the same playbook.
Are they all opioid addicts themselves. fearfull of losing out on their supplies?
Reminds me of the “concerned” alcoholic drivers that whine about DUI checkpoints. They only last a minute or two. Are they worried about being caught?
Claire says
The pharmacies were the ones that alerted the feds.
Tim Scott says
Accurate.
Ron says
Please don’t defend this guy. He deserves everything he has coming to him. I got scripts from him at my pharmacy 2000 miles away. The patient lied and told me they flew to California to see him! I denied to fill the prescriptions, then I looked up the website of his so-called practice. Google it, Happy Family Medicine.
There’s plenty there, but really 2 facts are all that I needed to figure out what’s up:
1: several celebrities who often brag about recreationally using promethazine with codeine AKA lean appear in selfie videos endorsing his GREAT service!
2: he accepts payment in BITCOIN to avoid tracking!
Trumpist#1 says
“Happy Family Medicine” lol.
Tim Scott says
LOL
“About 1764.”
Might be half a pill off somewhere…
William says
These folks above sure know a lot about drugs don’t they?
Reminds when when I worked in an ER down below.
Dudes would come in from TAs and for alcohol testing. They invariably referred to their cars as “vehicles”.
“vehicles”??? Who says that except guys who make frequent contact with cops.
Same with Carol and Samantha. They sure are familiar with pharmaceuticals. I guess those 2 and the others make frequent contact with pharmacists and doctors. I bet they can open those child-safe pill bottles with 1 hand and their eyes closed.
Tim Scott says
It was in their talking point sheet at the troll farm.
Surely you didn’t think that just out of the woodwork a bunch of never before see usernames all popped up agreeing “bad feds bad” at the same time on a story no one GAF about for four days.