A US federal court has convicted Indian-origin doctor Neil Anand, 48, for his involvement in a $2.3 million conspiracy to illegally distribute controlled substances and commit healthcare fraud, according to the US Justice Department.

Anand was also found guilty of money laundering on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, where the trial took place. He is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

According to prosecutors, Anand issued pre-signed prescriptions for oxycodone, a powerful and addictive opioid painkiller, enabling interns to use them to help nine patients obtain over 20,000 tablets.

The illegal prescriptions were part of a broader scheme that involved providing patients with “Goody Bags” — a combination of medically unnecessary medications filled through pharmacies he owned. These bags were allegedly used to lure patients into obtaining controlled drugs.

The fraudulent prescriptions were billed to private insurance companies and federal healthcare programs, which paid out $2.3 million for the unnecessary medications, the Justice Department stated.

When Anand learned of the investigation, he reportedly tried to hide his illegal earnings by transferring about $1.2 million to an account in his father’s name, designated for his minor daughter, in an attempt to conceal the money.

The case was prosecuted by Arun Bodapati from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division’s Fraud Section.

Anand was originally indicted in 2019 alongside four other individuals, three of whom were foreign medical graduates not licensed to practice in the US.

In a separate case, another Indian-American doctor, Devendra Patel, was arrested in 2017 in Nevada on multiple counts of unlawfully prescribing opioids, including fentanyl, hydrocodone, and oxycodone without medical justification. Patel pleaded not guilty in federal court in Reno.

The convictions underscore the ongoing crackdown on medical professionals involved in the opioid epidemic, which continues to devastate communities across the United States.