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TRENTON
Attorney General Anne Milgram and Criminal
Justice Director Deborah L. Gramiccioni announced
that a Livingston pharmacist was sentenced
today for stealing more than $11,500 in prescription
drugs by creating phony prescriptions.
According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Jeffrey I. Skuraton, 65, of Livingston,
was ordered by Superior Court Judge Salem
Vincent Ahto in Morris County to serve 30
days in county jail as a condition of three-year
probation and to pay full restitution and
a $15,000 civil fine. The sentence was based
on Skuraton’s guilty plea to an accusation
charging him with theft by deception.
At the Feb. 20 guilty plea hearing, Skuraton
admitted that between Aug. 6 and Nov.12, 2005,
while working as a registered pharmacist in
eight different Eckerd Pharmacies throughout
North Jersey, he fraudulently obtained $11,579
worth of prescription medicines from Eckerd
that were paid for by various insurance carriers.
Skuraton admitted that he gave the false impression
that medical doctors had issued approximately
80 prescriptions for various medications to
himself and his family and friends, and that
the insurance carriers were responsible to
pay for these prescriptions. Skuraton admitted
that the 80 purported prescriptions were not,
in fact, issued by medical doctors and therefore
the insurance carriers were not responsible
to pay for the prescriptions.
In
December of 2007, the Board of Pharmacy suspended
Skuraton’s pharmacist license for a
period of five years related to this matter.
Eckerd Pharmacy has reimbursed the various
insurance carriers that paid for the phony
prescriptions. In 1996, the Board of Pharmacy
suspended Skuraton’s pharmacist license
for one year after he pleaded guilty to theft
by deception. At the time, Skuraton admitted
that he falsified more than 175 prescriptions.
Detective
Thomas Ference, Civil Investigator Martin
Arasin and Deputy Attorney General Cheryl
A. Maccaroni were assigned to the investigation.
Deputy Attorney General Maccaroni represented
the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at
the sentencing. Eckerd Pharmacy uncovered
the fraud and forwarded the matter to the
New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs. The
Division of Consumer Affairs’ Enforcement
Bureau referred the investigation to OIFP
and assisted in the investigation. Prosecutor
Brown thanked both Eckerd Pharmacy and the
Division of Consumer Affairs for their assistance
in this matter.
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