A Raleigh County doctor on Wednesday was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he admitted to distributing oxycodone beyond the scope of the medical need of his patients.
Michael Kostenko also was ordered to pay a $50,000 fine Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to one charge distribution of oxycodone not for legitimate medical purposes and beyond the bounds of medical practice before U.S. District Court Judge Irene Berger.
Kostenko, 61, of Daniels, abruptly pleaded guilty during the second day of a criminal trial on April 25, when he faced 20 counts of illegal oxycodone distribution charges and two counts of oxycodone distribution resulting in death. A total of 16 people who were patients of Kostenko overdosed and died between January 2011 and March 2016, Assistant U.S. Attorney Miller Bushong said in a brief that was filed in the case.
The single count of illegal oxycodone distribution to which Kostenko pleaded guilty on Tuesday dealt with events that happened at his office, Coal Country Clinic, on December 9, 2013, Assistant U.S. Attorney Clint Carte said in a news release.
Kostenko admitted that, on that day, 271 patients arrived at his residence, where his office was located, seeking oxycodone prescriptions, Carte said. Kostenko said he and his staff collected $20,000 in cash that day, and he later deposited the money in an account at a local bank in amounts less than $10,000.
Kostenko said he wrote more than 370 oxycodone prescriptions, totaling to 22,255 pain pills, from his bedroom that day without ever seeing any of the patients who came to his home.
U.S. Attorney Carol Casto said Kostenko's case should send a message to drug dealers that federal officials will pursue them regardless of their education and status in their communities.
"As a physician, Dr. Kostenko held a position of trust in the community," Casto said. "Instead of honoring his oath to do no harm, he contributed to the greatest public health crisis of our generation - opioid abuse. Sixteen patients died from overdoses on his watch, but clearly not under his care."
The case was brought against Kostenko as part of an ongoing effort from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of prescription drugs and heroin, Carte said in the release.