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Surveillance cameras had already caught pharmacy tech Lisa M. Hoffman of Orange stealing the drugs from the shelves of the outpatient pharmacy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in East Orange, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said earlier this year.
According to an indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Newark this week, federal agents also seized and cracked encrypted messages between Hoffman and Wagner Checonolasco of Lyndhurst, who's accused of fencing the stolen drugs.
The pair used the message application “to plan and execute their thefts and sales of the stolen HIV medications, including arranging for the medications-for-cash exchanges,” Honig said.
Hoffman, 48, was responsible for ordering and maintaining the inventory of drugs and supplies for the outpatient pharmacy, the U.S. attorney said.
She used her authority in that job “to order large quantities of HIV prescription medications,” from October 2015 through November 2019, “so that she could steal the excess,” Honig said.
“After the medications arrived, Hoffman waited until co-workers were out of sight and then removed them from the VAMC,” she said.
Video shows her “placing them in a white mail bin, and then transferring the medications from the mail bin to her bag and exiting with the stolen medication,” Honig said.
Hoffman sold the drugs for cash to Checonolasco – known as “Wanny” – often at her home, the U.S. attorney said.
Checonolasco, 33, who resold the stolen meds, is still awaiting trial on charges of conspiring to steal government property, she said.
Hoffman, meanwhile, was charged in the indictment with conspiracy, theft of government property and theft of federal medical products.
Federal prosecutors are no doubt discussing possible plea deals with each defendant. Whoever accepts first would likely be expected to testify against the other.
Honig credited special agents of the FBI’s Newark Field Office and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ Office of Inspector General Northeast Field Office with the investigation leading to the charges.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole F. Mastropieri of her Health Care Fraud Unit is handling the case for the government.
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