Las Vegas doctor to plead guilty amid broadening probe of pain med prescriptions

Las Vegas physician Victor Bruce has agreed to plead guilty next month in a broad federal investigation into the unlawful trafficking of the prescription painkiller oxycodone.

This comes as Nevada U.S. Attorney Daniel Bogden said Monday that at least four more doctors are under investigation for prescription drug crimes in a growing problem across the valley.

The Bruce investigation has targeted two other physicians known to prescribe large amounts of oxycodone, as well as a pharmacy alleged to have filled phony prescriptions for a drug trafficking organization, according to court documents obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Bogden would not comment on the Bruce investigation, but he said his office hoped to file charges soon against the other four doctors, all of whom he declined to identify.

In the past several years, five physicians, including Bruce, have been charged in federal court with the unlawful distribution of prescription drugs, Bogden said.

The physicians have come under investigation as the coroner has reported that there are more pharmaceutical-related deaths in Clark County than methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine combined, Bogden explained.

“It would be impossible to arrest and prosecute the endless number of persons who are illegally trafficking in prescription drugs such as oxycontin, oxycodone and Xanax, so our strategy has been to focus on the medical practitioners who are illegally prescribing and/or dispensing the drugs under the banner of medical care,” Bogden said.

Bruce, 48, who considers himself a specialist in pain management, is to plead guilty on July 1, according to the electronic court docket.

He was indicted by a federal grand jury in December on one felony count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, oxycodone.

His plea agreement won’t be public until he appears in court next month, but defense lawyer Richard Schonfeld said Monday cooperating with prosecutors is not part of Bruce’s deal.

“Dr. Bruce had an exemplary background, both professional and personal,” Schonfeld said. “He’s accepting responsibility for a terrible mistake he made in his life, and he hopes to put this behind him.”

While under indictment, Bruce has continued to run his Swan Lake Medical Center on Hualapai Way but has been barred from prescribing pain medication.

His indictment was part of an investigation that focused on alleged trafficking of oxycodone in Nevada and Kentucky by a man identified in court documents as Robert Wolfe, who was known by the nickname “old man.”

The “large scale” investigation, spearheaded by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, has made use of undercover agents and confidential sources involved in the drug organization, court documents show.

Wolfe last year bragged to an undercover agent that he once had as many as 3,000 people going to Bruce’s office to obtain oxycodone prescriptions, according to the documents. Wolfe told the agent that his operation was highly successful, but that he lost $2 million he kept at a private vault company during a robbery.

In July, the documents show, DEA agents secretly following Bruce got a scare when a car Wolfe was driving was rear-ended coming off an exit ramp on U.S. Highway 95 and Jones Boulevard. Wolfe suffered injuries in the accident.

A Nevada Highway Patrol officer who did an inventory of Wolfe’s car before it was towed found a typed, “multi-page” document that appeared to be a record of drug sales. The NHP officer showed the document to the DEA agents and then impounded it.

Wolfe and five others authorities tied to his organization were charged in a criminal complaint in September, but so far none of the defendants have been publicly indicted in the case.

On Monday, a Bruce employee who pleaded guilty in the investigation was sentenced to three years probation with one year of home confinement.

Jade Lepoma also was given 10 days by U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey to quit her job as a receptionist for Bruce and eventually find other employment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Crane Pomerantz sought an 18-month prison sentence, arguing Lepoma’s role in the drug trafficking scheme contributed to a community-wide drug epidemic. But Lepoma’s lawyer Chris Rasmussen contended she was “the lowest person on the totem pole.”

Lepoma, 35, who has two small children and an unemployed husband, pleaded guilty in January to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and agreed to cooperate against Bruce.

In her agreement, Lepoma admitted that she helped Wolfe obtain oxycodone prescriptions from Bruce so Wolfe could sell the drugs at a profit on the street.

Lepoma said she and other Bruce staffers shared in roughly $1,200 a week from Wolfe outside their regular salaries for their assistance.

Following Bruce’s indictment in December, Pomerantz called the physician’s conduct “egregious,” alleging without naming Wolfe that Bruce worked directly with the drug dealer to unlawfully distribute thousands of painkiller pills a week.

Pomerantz said Bruce created “ghost files” of patients, prescribed oxycodone under the phony names and sold the prescriptions to Wolfe.

Undercover DEA agents secretly recorded street buys during the investigation and conducted several raids, court documents show.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Find him on Twitter: @JGermanRJ.