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Office of the District Attorney P. David Soares ‘Operation Which Doctor’ MD Pleads Guilty ALBANY , NY – District Attorney P. David Soares today announced that DR. ANA SANTI, 68, of 3 Holder Place, Forest Hills, NY pled guilty to Criminal Diversion of Prescription Medications in the 2nd Degree before the Honorable Stephen W. Herrick. Under the plea agreement, SANTI will receive at least two years and possibly as many as six years in State prison. District Attorney Soares stressed the extreme significance of the plea deal agreed to today and thanked his staff, the NYS Department of Health Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement and the Colonie Police Department for their diligence in this ongoing investigation. “The guilty plea of Dr. Ana Santi this morning is the first of several expected in connection with ‘Operation Which Doctor’. The illegal sale of narcotics and controlled substances via Internet into Albany County will not be tolerated, and anyone facilitating or contributing to that process will be arrested and held accountable for their actions,” stated DA Soares. The thirteen count indictment alleged that on several occasions, DR. SANTI committed a criminal diversion act by signing bogus prescriptions for drugs totaling in excess of $150,000 from multiple criminal associates, including Oasis Longevity and Rejuvenation, purportedly signed by a physician located in New York State, Dr. Abdul Almarashi, with knowledge or reasonable grounds to know that there was no medical need for the medicine and/or that the prescriptions were bogus. The indictment further alleged that DR. SANTI did knowingly and unlawfully sell multiple controlled substance in Albany County by receiving and signing several prescriptions for customers whom she never saw in person as a patient, also when she has no valid medical license and forged the name A. Almarashi, a doctor suspended from practice. In New York State, a doctor may not prescribe a drug unless they conduct a face-to-face diagnostic examination of the patient, and a pharmacy may not dispense a prescription drug without a valid prescription. ADA Chris Baynes from the Financial Crimes Unit handled the SANTI plea and will continue to prosecute all defendants involved in ‘Operation Which Doctor’. Sentencing for DR. ANA SANTI to be determined.
For further information contact: Heather Streeter Orth
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