HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – A former physician who practiced in Barboursville pleaded guilty today to a federal drug charge, announced United States Attorney Carol Casto. Gregory Donald Chaney, 52, entered his guilty plea to obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.
Chaney was the owner of Tri-State Medical Center, which is now out of business. On December 1, 2015, Chaney wrote a prescription for one of his employees for 120 thirty milligram oxycodone pills. Chaney admitted that he wrote the prescription without any physical examination of the employee and without medical necessity. Chaney then instructed the employee to have the prescription filled at Ross Drug Pharmacy in Ceredo in Wayne County. Prior to having the prescription filled, it was agreed between Chaney and the employee that the pills would be turned over to him in exchange for approximately $830 in lieu of unpaid wages. The next day, the employee had the prescription filled and gave the pills to Chaney in exchange for the money as planned. Chaney admitted that he wrote the prescription with the intent to illegally obtain oxycodone and to conceal the true recipient of the pain pills.
Chaney faces up to four years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on April 3, 2017.
The Drug Enforcement Administration conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney R. Gregory McVey handled the prosecution. Chief United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers presided over the plea hearing.
This prosecution was brought as part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of prescription drugs and heroin. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down illegal pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District.
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