San Fernando doctor on trial for allegedly selling oxycodone prescriptions

A San Fernando Valley physician routinely sold prescriptions to drug-addicted patients for cash, including one instance in which a 23-year-old man later died of an overdose, a prosecutor told a federal court jury Wednesday.

“He did it for one reason, and one reason only: Money,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Xochitl Arteaga told jurors in her opening statement in the case against Dr. Masoud Bamdad.

Bamdad, 55, is charged with needlessly prescribing oxycodone to more than a dozen patients. In at least one case, drug dealers allegedly recruited a patient from a San Diego homeless shelter to get a prescription from Bamdad so they could sell the drugs on the street.

Arteaga said Bamdad collected so much cash that he once asked an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent posing as a patient to pay him in larger bills.

“Pay me in hundreds. If you pay me in twenties my pocket gets too big,” she quoted Bamdad as saying in a secretly recorded conversation with the agent.

The prosecutor said Bamdad admitted to receiving about $30,000 a week in cash -- or $1.5 million a year -- for prescriptions, and that agents found $60,000 in cash in a safe in his home.

Bamdad’s defense attorney opted not to make an opening statement at the outset of the case, but reserved the right to do so later.

Federal authorities launched their investigation two years ago after receiving a tip regarding Bamdad’s practice on Maclay Avenue in San Fernando, according to DEA agent Susannah Herkert.

Herkert testified that she ran a computer check and discovered that Bamdad was prescribing large quantities of oxycodone and OxyContin to patients younger than 30, which can be an indication of prescription abuse.

OxyContin is a powerful and highly addictive opiate sometimes referred to as “hillbilly heroin” for its popularity in rural areas. An 80 milligram pill can sell for up to $80 on the street. Oxycodone is a generic form of the drug.

DEA agent Jeffrey O’Neil told jurors he was sent to Bamdad’s office undercover to see if he could obtain a prescription for the drug. When he arrived for his initial visit in September 2007, O’Neil said he found the waiting room overflowing with patients, including “lots of young people.”

After waiting about three hours, O’Neil said he saw Bamdad and told him his shoulder hurt from lifting weights and that he had some pain in his back.

“He asked me if I could lift my arm and I lifted it. He squeezed it briefly and that was it,” the agent said.

Arteaga then played an audio recording that O’Neil had made without Bamdad’s knowledge.

The doctor can be heard comparing OxyContin to synthetic heroin and telling his “patient” that he’d be better off getting some cocaine or heroin off the street or to “go hang yourself.”

Despite his admonishment, the two then negotiated over the price of the prescription, with Bamdad telling the then-27-year-old agent that each was worth up to $200.

“You’re the healthiest one I’ve seen today,” the doctor can be heard saying. “No serious problems.”

The two agreed on a price of $140, all the money the agent said he had with him.

“Today you pay whatever you want,” Bamdad tells O’Neil. “But next time I’m going to charge you more.”

Arteaga told jurors during her opening statement that they would hear later in the case from the father of a 23-year-old man who died of an overdose after being prescribed oxycodone by Bamdad. Testimony in the case, which is being argued in front of U.S. District Judge George H. Wu, is expected to resume today.

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scott.glover@latimes.com