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Feds: Bergen Doc Admits Buying Cancer Drugs For Multi-Million-Dollar Black Market Resale

An Elmwood Park doctor admitted buying discounted prescription drugs used to treat cancer and other diseases so they could be sold for tens of millions of dollars on the black market, federal authorities said.

Jon-Paul Dadaian

Jon-Paul Dadaian

Photo Credit: FACEBOOK (Jon-Paul Dadaian)

Jon-Paul Dadaian, 53, a board-certified anesthesiologist and pain management specialist from Manhattan, used his medical license to buy the oncology medications under false pretenses "for the purpose of selling them for profit," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.

He also let others use his license for the same purpose, Sellinger said.

All for $130,500, the U.S. attorney said.

Dadaian was paid by two unidentified conspirators who owned and operated wholesale prescription drug distribution companies, Sellinger said.

In exchange, he bought expensive prescription drugs, "primarily cold-chain biologic infusion medications that typically are used to treat cancers, macular degeneration, and autoimmune diseases," the U.S. attorney said.

The distributors, who wouldn't have been able to buy the drugs legally, benefitted from discounted community physician pricing that Dadaian paid for them, Sellinger said.

They then turned around and sold the drugs for considerable profits, he said.

"The scheme ran from June 2012 through April 2018, during which tens of millions in prescription drugs were purchased in Dadaian’s name and using his medical license," the U.S. attorney said.

Dadaian, who lives in a 31-story apartment in Chelsea and had another office on Madison Avenue, took a deal from the government rather than risk trial.

He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Newark on Monday, May 16, to unlawfully selling prescription cancer medication, Sellinger said.

U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton scheduled sentencing for Sept. 20.

As part of the agreement, Dadaian must make full restitution, he said.

Sellinger credited special agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations New York Field Office and his office with the investigation leading to the plea, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Diana Vondra Carrig and Sara Aliya Aliabadi of his Camden office.

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