Doctor disciplined in Oct. 1 gunman case faces new allegations

The Las Vegas weight loss doctor punished for accessing Stephen Paddock’s prescription records now stands accused of illegally prescribing appetite suppressants for his own use.

According to a complaint filed last week by the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners, Dr. Ivan Goldsmith, who operated TrimCare in Las Vegas before moving to Florida, prescribed himself Phentermine and Phendimetrazine on five occasions between 2014 and 2015. Both are considered controlled substances by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

The allegations come seven weeks after Goldsmith was disciplined by the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy for allegedly providing the private prescription information of Paddock, the gunman who carried out the Oct. 1 massacre on the Strip, to the Review-Journal in the days after the mass shooting. The board decided not to revoke Goldsmith’s prescribing license, but placed him on probation.

The new complaint, which lists 10 counts of misconduct, could lead to harsher punishment, possibly even revocation of his medical license. It also includes allegations that Goldsmith violated pharmacy board regulations, engaged in disreputable conduct and allowed his staff to access Paddock’s prescription information through the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program database.

Those charges apparently stem from the pharmacy board’s investigation. Pharmacy board general counsel Brett Kandt said at the time that the doctor, who accessed Paddock’s report on five occasions between Oct. 2 and Oct. 3, 2017, was “the only possible source for the details” in a Review-Journal article by former medical reporter Paul Harasim published on Oct. 4. That exclusive article reported that Paddock had been prescribed diazepam, better known by its trade name Valium, in the months before the shooting.

Harasim, reached by phone Thursday, did not confirm that Goldsmith was the source of the information.

“We just don’t reveal our sources,” he said. “It was important information for the community to know at the time.”

Goldsmith also faces four counts related to the prescription of the appetite suppressants — engaging in conduct that violated pharmacy board regulations; violating standards of practice published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture that outline the dietary use of appetite suppressants; failure to maintain complete medical records on his own diagnosis, treatment and care; and unsafe or unprofessional conduct.

He’s also accused of allowing two of his physician assistants to prescribe and dispense medication, including controlled substances, to his patients while he was out of the country without establishing a “bona fide” relationship with them. By law, a practitioner is said to have a bona fide relationship if they’ve examined a patient within six months of prescribing or dispensing a drug, and a supervising physician is responsible for their physician assistants’ medical actions.

There have been no board actions taken against the physician assistants named in the complaint, the medical board’s website showed.

Goldsmith could not be reached for comment.

His attorney, Richard Schonfeld, declined to comment on the two allegations related to Goldsmith’s physicians assistants’ prescribing practices and the appetite suppressants, but he has filed a motion on Goldsmith’s behalf to stay the board’s probation on Goldsmith’s prescribing certifications.

“The information that the pharmacy board deemed to be protected was ultimately made publicly available by court order and the disclosure of the autopsy and toxicology reports,” Schonfeld said, referring to a Supreme Court order in April that forced Las Vegas police to make public evidence collected during its investigation of the shooting.

Goldsmith’s license is listed as “inactive” on the medical board’s website. Executive Director Edward Cousineau said Goldsmith requested the change.