Ki I. Song, 70, of Matawan, was sentenced to three years of probation by Superior Court Judge Bradley J. Ferencz in Middlesex County. Judge Ferencz also ordered Song to pay a $5,000 fine and to serve 150 hours of community service. The sentence was based on Song’s March 13 guilty plea to third-degree dispensing of a controlled dangerous substance. The charge was contained in an Oct. 21, 2011 state grand jury indictment.

In pleading guilty, Song, who until 2011 was a licensed physician practicing in Jersey City, admitted that on June 1, 2010 and on or about March 19, 2011, he knowingly wrote prescriptions for Xanax in return for a payment of $100 without examining the recipient of the prescription. An investigation determined that Song made the exchanges with the customers in a restaurant parking lot on Route 1 in Woodbridge.

The New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners permanently revoked Song's medical license by voluntary surrender on April 20, 2011. Deputy Attorney General Kim Ringler handled the matter on behalf of the Attorney General.

Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi noted that the charge to which Song pleaded guilty is the result of an investigation by the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Jersey City Police Department's Special Investigation Unit. This investigation stems from a prior investigation by the agencies called Operation MedScam.

New Jersey law provides that there is a presumption against any sentence of incarceration for a person convicted of a third-degree crime who has not previously been convicted of an indictable offense. Deputy Attorney General David Noble, Sgt. Frederick Weidman and Detective Kevin Gannon, were assigned to this matter.