EDMONDS — An ex-pharmacist once praised for his good work at an Edmonds pharmacy is off to federal prison.
Milton W. Cheung, 55, of Lynnwood, was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to a little more than a year behind bars for a doling out expired and second-hand medications to customers at the TOP Food and Drug pharmacy in Edmonds.
In a separate court matter, Haggen Inc., which operates the Edmonds store, along with 32 other supermarkets in Washington and Oregon, has agreed to pay $425,000 in fines for failing to maintain adequate records and to take precautions to prevent drug diversion.
The company also agreed to immediately implement a compliance program to prevent similar abuse.
Cheung pleaded guilty to misbranding drugs and deceptively acquiring a controlled substance.
Investigators revealed that by 2007 Cheung was using an elaborate scheme as a cover to rip off the store. He solicited doctors, hospices, clinics and even TOP customers to donate expired and unused drugs for a philanthropic mission. He told donors he planned to donate the drugs to less-developed countries.
Cheung collected thousands of pills. Instead of shipping them overseas, he added them to the pharmacy’s inventory and handed them out when he filled customers’ prescriptions.
Many of the drugs were expired and all of them had been handled by other people.
The extra inventory was used to make the pharmacy look more profitable.
Meanwhile, Cheung was pocketing cash, making phony merchandise returns and cashing stolen gift cards, assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Friedman said.
The scheme worked for awhile. Cheung was lauded for his work, and was named the grocer’s Pharmacy Manager of the Year four years in a row.
TOP officials believe Cheung pilfered several hundred thousand dollars, Friedman said. Cheung estimates that he took less than $100,000.
“The crimes committed had more to do with greed than anything else,” Friedman wrote in court documents.
Cheung is a wealthy man and didn’t need the money he took from his employer, Friedman added.
Cheung resigned in September after his scheme was discovered. Haggen Inc. immediately recalled all the prescriptions filled at the pharmacy between June 1, 2008 and Sept. 1, 2008.
There have been no reports that the second-hand medications made anyone sick but “Cheung had no right to expose the public to the risk” that went with his plan, Friedman said.
Most expiration dates are conservative and rarely would an expired medication be toxic, experts said. The larger concern is that expired medication is no longer effective.
“I acted selfishly and unfairly subjected others to undue risk. There is no excuse for my behavior,” Cheung wrote in a letter to U.S. District Judge John Coughenour. He added: “I want to live the rest of my life as an honest, law-abiding citizen, and I will do whatever it takes to regain the trust of those around me.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463, hefley@heraldnet.com.
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