Dr. Shakeel Kahn
MEDICAL BOARD RECORD—37896
LICENSE STATUS/DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS—License under emergency suspension
Casper Doctor Arrested In Multi-state Prescription Drug Conspiracy
Local and federal law enforcement agencies arrested a Casper doctor and his wife without incident Wednesday for a prescription drug conspiracy that extended to at least four other states.
Dr. Shakeel and Lyn Kahn were arrested at their home on Thorndike Avenue by Casper Police officers and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents. They are tentatively charged with conspiracy to dispense controlled substances outside the scope of normal medical practice.
They will hear the specific charge or charges against them during their initial appearances in federal court probably within the next week, according to sources close to the case.
They are being held at the Natrona County Detention Center.
Two weeks ago, local and federal law enforcement officers executed search warrants at Kahn’s house and at his office at 301 S. Fenway.
The sign outside the office building does not list him as a tenant, but his office door has a plaque stating he specializes in “pain management.” Lyn Kahn is his business manager.
The case started in April when the Wyoming State Board of Pharmacy asked the DEA to investigate Kahn, who was issuing large prescriptions for controlled substances under two DEA licenses in Arizona and Wyoming.
Meanwhile, the DEA office in Phoenix opened an investigation into Kahn’s prescriptions of hydrocodone and oxycodone.
Tuesday, the Wyoming State Board of Medicine suspended Kahn’s medical license for prescribing controlled substances outside the standard of care. The Arizona Board of Medicine suspended his license for similar reasons on Aug. 5.
Hydrocodone and oxycodone are powerful narcotics used in pain management. They are highly addictive. The street value of oxycodone, for example, ranges from $1 to $1.80 per milligram. Kahn wrote numerous oxycodone prescriptions for up to 300 tablets of 30mg.
A review of Kahn’s prescription profile showed he was filling prescriptions for unusually high amounts of controlled substances in Wyoming, Arizona, Kentucky, Massachusetts and Washington, according to an affidavit filed filed in federal court by a DEA agent.
For example, two patients living at the same address with the same kind of therapy were receiving 30-day supplies of oxycodone from prescriptions in Wyoming and then two weeks later would receive 30-day supplies of the same drug under Kahn’s DEA registration in Arizona, according to the affidavit.
“This behavior is repeated for multiple months, thus doubling the amount of Oxycodone prescribed from a 30-day supply to a 60-day supply,” the affidavit reads.
The DEA agent also found some patients were getting their prescriptions up to 20 days early, and these and other practices indicated Kahn was providing them with controlled substances in a way to avoid detection by regulatory and law enforcement agencies.
“This behavior constitutes probable cause to believe that Kahn is not prescribing controlled substances for a legitimate medical purpose and such behavior is outside the usual course of his professional practice,” according to the affidavit. (LINK) — 11/30/2016
Wyoming Board of Medicine Suspends Casper Doctor’s License For Excessive Painkiller Prescriptions
The Wyoming State Board of Medicine suspended the physician license of a Casper doctor who was arrested by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for probable federal drug violations.
The board received information on Nov. 15 about Dr. Shakeel Kahn’s prescription practices to three patients, including his wife, according to its order to suspend the license.
Two weeks later, it conducted an emergency executive session to review his practice, the Arizona Board of Medicine’s suspension of his license in August, and alleged violations of the Wyoming Medical Practice Act.
“The Board is led to find that Kahn’s continued possession of a Wyoming Physician License and practice of medicine in Wyoming poses an imminent and immediate threat to the public health, safety, and welfare of the people of the Wyoming and other states that imperatively requires a summary suspension of his Wyoming Physician License,” the board wrote.
The next day, Nov. 30, Casper police and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested Kahn and his wife Lyn. They are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.
In its research, the Wyoming board found Kahn received his physician license in the state on Feb. 8, 2007, and his Arizona license on Jan. 3, 2008.
The medical board reviewed Kahn’s history of a patient known as CEM in Arizona and how he deviated from the standard care with his prescriptions of high amounts of oxycodone, methadone and fentanyl. Kahn also prescribed high amounts of these drugs to CEM in Wyoming.
Besides placing patient CEM at unreasonable risk, the Board of Medicine wrote Kahn “may have conspired to acquire to a drug classified as a scheduled drug by deception for use by someone other than Patient CEM.”
The second patient, LV, considered themselves to be “‘in a relationship’” starting Oct. 29, 2014. LV is Lyn Voss, now Lyn Kahn.
The board found Shakeel Kahn prescribed controlled substances hydrocodone, phentermine, hydromorphone, Tramadol and testosterone cypionate injection. For more information on these and other drugs, visit drugs.com.
The Board of Medicine saw two possible problems with this: the doctor was engaging in “unprofessional or dishonorable conduct” for being in a relationship with a patient and prescribing controlled substances for her, or if she wasn’t using the drugs herself, she may have been trying obtain them by fraud.
It also looked at his large prescriptions of oxycodone for a patient known as DC starting Feb. 29, 2016. He increased the dose, and then sharply decreased it three months later. Kahn made similar prescription increases and decreases from Aug. 3 to Oct. 1.
The Board of Medicine stated Kahn was either showing careless disregard for the patient or conspiring to acquire a narcotic by fraud.
The Board suspended his license until it files a formal complaint against Kahn and can conduct a hearing. (LINK) — 12/15/2016
Feds say Casper doctor accused of illegal painkiller sales violated bond by contacting patients
A federal judge issued arrest warrants Wednesday for a Casper doctor and his wife charged with illegally selling prescription painkillers after the couple allegedly violated conditions of their bond by contacting former patients, who are potential witnesses in the case.
U.S. District Court of Wyoming Judge Scott W. Skavdahl issued warrants for the arrest of Shakeel and Lyn Kahn on Wednesday. A federal prosecutor notified the court Tuesday that the Kahns had violated the conditions of the bond by allegedly contacting at least three former patients.
During a Jan. 5 interview with agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, a former patient living in Washington state said Shakeel Kahn had contacted him multiple times since being released on bond on Dec. 2. The patient told the agents that the doctor said “he had done nothing wrong and that everything would be OK,” according to court documents. Kahn also asked the patient if he had been contacted by law enforcement.
The patient additionally told investigators that Kahn had called his brother, who is also a former patient. Agents interviewed the brother, who lives in Portland, Oregon, the same day.
The brother told investigators that Shakeel Kahn had called him on Jan. 4 and asked him to return to Casper to sign a receipt for $3,000 the man had sent the doctor. During the 23-minute phone conversation, Kahn said he wanted the man to sign the receipt and say it was payment for medical services, the court documents claim.
Investigators requested Shakeel Kahn’s phone records from AT&T. The records showed that Kahn called the two brothers three separate times. The length of the conversations totaled about 46 minutes.
The doctor’s wife, Lyn Kahn, also contacted potential witnesses, court records allege.
One of the doctor’s former patients who lives in Arizona contacted investigators on Dec. 6 and said Lyn Kahn had called her three days before — the day after she had been released on bail.
The woman said Lyn Kahn warned her that her phone was tapped and that the patient should contact her via her home phone, according to court documents. The woman also said Lyn Kahn had texted her multiple times. She gave the investigator screenshots of the messages.
The Kahns were released Dec. 2 in lieu of $20,000 bond and the title to their home in Fort Mojave, Arizona. One of the conditions of their release was that they couldn’t “have any contact, directly or indirectly, with any potential witnesses in this matter,” court documents show. The language in Shakeel Kahn’s bond condition specifies that he may not contact any current or former patients.
An official at the Natrona County Detention Center said Wednesday evening that neither of the Kahns was currently at the facility. An email and phone call to the couple’s lawyer were not immediately returned.
Arrest
Federal agents and Casper police arrested the Kahns on Nov. 30 in their home on Thorndike Avenue after a months-long investigation into their business. Prosecutors allege that the couple regularly sold 30-day prescriptions of the painkiller Oxycodone for $500 to customers across the country. At least two of his patients have been arrested for selling prescription painkillers on the street.
The Phoenix-based DEA agents began investigating the couple in March 2014 after people filed complaints that Kahn was prescribing high quantities of painkillers for people with no legitimate medical need. The Arizona Medical Board suspended his medical license on Aug. 5, court documents show.
DEA agents in Wyoming began investigating Kahn in April after the Wyoming Board of Pharmacy sent a complaint that said Kahn was prescribing large amounts of controlled substances.
According to court records, the doctor issued 632 Oxycodone prescriptions in 2015 — about half of all of the prescriptions he wrote that year. That number is a drop, however, from the 2,050 Oxycodone prescriptions he wrote in 2012 and the 1,585 such prescriptions he wrote in 2013.
Kahn required patients to sign a document that says “Dr. Shakeel A. Kahn is not now and has never been a ‘drug dealer,’” according to court documents. The document also says that patients who sign it would have to pay the doctor $100,000 if he were ever investigated or charged with a crime because of something the patient did or said.
Investigators recorded phone conversations between the Kahns and their customers, according to court documents.
The Kahn’s Casper properties include their Thorndike Avenue home, a medical office on South Fenway Street and a store called “Vape World of Casper” on 12th Street. The couple also owned two homes and a medical office in Fort Mohave, Arizona. Between May 2012 and August 2016, the couple deposited more than $1.5 million in cash into their bank accounts.
The couple could face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine if convicted. (LINK) — 1/11/2017
