East Bay doctor gets prison, ordered to give up license for distributing opioids
ALAMO – An East Bay internal medicine doctor has been sentenced to federal prison and ordered to give up her medical license after admitting to illegally distributing powerful opioids, prosecutors said Monday.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office of the Northern District of California, a judge sentenced 59-year-old Parto Karimi of Alamo was sentenced to one year and one day in prison on Friday. Karimi pleaded guilty in July to one count of distributing hydrocodone outside the scope of a professional practice.
Court documents said that Karimi ran a practice from an ADU at her home under the name "Mindful Medicine" and had previously worked as an emergency room doctor at an East Bay hospital.
According to prosecutors, the DEA launched an investigation into Karimi after receiving a tip from the family of one of her former patients who had died.
During the investigation, an undercover agent visited Karimi's practice and asked for 10mg Norco tablets, claiming she had suffered leg pain due resulting from work as a restaurant server.
In her plea agreement, Karimi admitted to writing a prescription for 60 high-dose Norco pills without physically examining the patient, without asking follow-up questions, without obtaining the patient's medical records or without exploring alternative treatment options.
Prosecutors said the government also argued that Karimi wrote prescriptions for opioids in exchange for drugs such as cocaine as methamphetamine, and cash.
During Friday's hearing, Karimi was ordered to forfeit her California medical license and to pay a $4,000 fine.
Prosecutors said Karimi has also been ordered to serve three years of supervised release once she finishes her term in prison.
According to the state medical board, Karimi has been licensed to practice medicine since 1999.
