Cardiologist To Plead In Methadone-Related Pill Mill Case
PITTSBURGH (AP) - A cardiologist charged with running a pill mill along with a woman who ran a methadone clinic raided by federal agents last fall is set to plead guilty Friday.
Dr. Dominic DiLeo, of Uniontown, and Rosalind Sugarmann, of Allison Park, are each charged with 19 counts of distributing drugs that weren't for a legitimate medical purpose to an unidentified person.
DiLeo's attorney declined to comment ahead of a court appearance Friday afternoon before a federal judge in Pittsburgh.
Sugarmann has denied wrongdoing, as have two people since added in a superseding indictment in April accused of assisting in the scheme. All three plan to challenge the allegations at trial, court records show.
Sugarmann, 64, headed the Addiction Specialists clinic in North Union Township that caught fire in July and was raided last fall by federal agents. DiLeo practices in nearby Uniontown.
They're charged with unlawfully dispensing Suboxone, a drug used to treat addicts of heroin and other opiates and gradually wean them.
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Suboxone can also be abused by people to get high, and federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh say both defendants illegally supplied the drug on scores of occasions from January 2013 to July 2015.
DiLeo is also charged with 194 counts of supplying Suboxone to Sugarmann on a weekly basis. She is charged with aiding and abetting DiLeo, who gave the drugs to her under the alias Larry Greene, according to the indictment.
DiLeo, 67, also faces four counts of giving a different unnamed person Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug, in August and September.
DiLeo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for Medicare fraud in the 1990s. He also lost his medical license, but it was reinstated in 2005.
His medical license was last renewed in 2014 but has again been suspended since his indictment, according to online records with the Pennsylvania Department of State.
DiLeo was convicted of writing illegal painkiller prescriptions and taking kickbacks that he spent on extramarital affairs. DiLeo also referred patients to a medical supply company he co-owned, but the patients referred there didn't need the oxygen he prescribed, and he faked tests on the company's employees so he could submit fraudulent bills to their insurers.
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