Indian-American doctor pleads guilty to illegally prescribing opioids
Darpan News Desk IANS, 16 May, 2023 11:20 AM
New York, May 16 (IANS) A 76-year-old Indian-origin physician has admitted that he illegally prescribed opioids to patients outside the usual course of his professional practice in the US.
Sawtantra Chopra, of Modesto in California, pleaded guilty to three counts of illegally prescribing opioids and other medication, US Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced last week.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on September 5 by US District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston.
According to court documents, Chopra, who was arrested in 2018, prescribed drugs -- including hydrocodone, alprazolam (Xanax), and Promethazine with codeine syrup -- not for a legitimate medical purpose.
These drugs are highly addictive and commonly abused.
They affect the central nervous system and may only be prescribed when medically required.
Chopra was arrested in 2018 and surrendered his medical license in 2020.
He faces a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
The actual sentence, however, will be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
Ahead of the IMF publishing revised economic forecasts next week, Georgieva said global growth in 2022 had collapsed by almost half since the initial rebound from the Covid pandemic in 2021, sliding from 6.1 per cent to 3.4 per cent.
Trump's trusted allies and donors in the Republican Party and business tycoons have shied away and his 'best friend' media baron Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, has dumped him in favour of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is yet to announce his nomination.
His intent was obvious — to show that in the arena of the American attention economy, where the fighting forever rages, Donald J. Trump remains a potent force. Commanding attention has been his world, and politics is a realm of attention. Whether the legal realm, which he has successfully avoided until now, will be anywhere near the same for him may be another reality entirely.
In total, Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records, all of them allegedly "with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof," the now-unsealed indictment reads.
Trump became the first former President to be arrested and face a trial in the nation's 246-year history, plunging the US into unchartered legal and political territory. He is also a candidate for next year's presidential election, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, and only two per cent behind President Joe Biden in polls.
One expert says Thursday's historic indictment of a former president is sure to make the line between politics and justice even more blurry. Neama Rahmani, a former assistant U.S. attorney who's now a personal injury lawyer in California, says prosecutors have always been wary of politically sensitive cases.
