Mount Kisco MD Convicted Over Patient's Fentanyl Overdose

MOUNT KISCO, NY — Eight days after he was convicted for receiving bribes and kickbacks from a pharmaceutical company in exchange for prescribing millions of dollars' worth of a potent fentanyl-based spray, a Westchester doctor with a Manhattan practice pleaded guilty to to one count of distributing oxycodone and fentanyl to a patient for no legitimate medical purpose, which resulted in the overdose of the patient.

SEE: Mount Kisco Doctor Convicted In Fentanyl Kickback Scheme

"Less than two weeks ago, Gordon Freedman was convicted of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from a pharmaceutical company to push medically unneeded fentanyl. Today, in a separate but hardly unrelated case, he admitted to dispensing massive quantities of oxycodone and fentanyl to a patient who died of a fentanyl overdose in 2017," Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Wednesday. "It seems clear Gordon Freedman was more concerned with his own wealth than his patients’ health."

From 2013 through the spring of 2017, Freedman, who worked at and owned a private pain-management office on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and was an associate clinical professor at a large hospital in Manhattan, prescribed enormous quantities of oxycodone and fentanyl to one particular patient. For example, in 2013 alone, Freedman prescribed the patient 85,427 oxycodone pills – an average of 234 oxycodone pills per day.

On April 13, 2017, Freedman gave that patient prescriptions for roughly 150 doses of a drug containing fentanyl, and for 950 oxycodone pills containing 30 mg of oxycodone per pill. On May 4, 2017, the patient died of a overdose of the fentanyl prescribed by Freedman.

The one count of distributing oxycodone and fentanyl carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The potential sentence is prescribed by Congress; the actual sentence will be determined by the judge. Freedman is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Alison Nathan on March 18, 2020.

Two days later, he is scheduled to be sentenced on one count of conspiracy to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute, which carries a maximum term of five years in prison, one count of violating the Anti-Kickback Statute, which carries a maximum term of 10 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of 20 years in prison.

SEE:

• Mount Kisco Doctor Caused Fatal Overdose: US Attorney
• Westchester MDs Pushed Fentanyl Spray For Big Pharma
• Mount Kisco Doctor Convicted in Fentanyl Kickback Scheme