A former doctor whose practice was located in Roslyn was sentenced to five years in prison on Thursday after conspiring to illegally distribute opioids, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York.
Tameshwar Ammar, 53, who was indicted in November 2019 and worked at Age Management Associates at 55 Bryant Ave., relinquished his license to practice medicine in June 2020.
In July 2020, Ammar pleaded guilty via teleconference to conspiring to illegally distribute more than 19,000 oxycodone pills to two individuals identified in the indictment as John Doe 1 and John Doe 2. As part of his plea, officials said, Ammar agreed to forfeit approximately $245,700 as proceeds involved in the oxycodone offense.
“Today’s sentence sends a stern warning that doctors who decide to betray their Hippocratic oaths by acting as profit-seeking drug dealers will face severe consequences,” Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Jacquelyn M. Kasulis said in a statement. “This Office and our partners at the DEA are working tirelessly to combat the opioid epidemic on Long Island and elsewhere, including by prosecuting medical professionals who contribute to the risk of addiction, overdose and death by their callous actions.”
The U.S. attorney’s office said that Ammar prescribed over 8,000 pills to John Doe 1 with the knowledge that he would be reselling them and that he prescribed over 11,000 pills to John Doe 2, even after the latter was admitted to a psychiatric clinic. John Doe 2 died in 2019 of a mix of oxycodone, methadone, which attorneys also claim Ammar prescribed, and ketamine.
A biography in the fall 2008 issue of Elements Magazine said that Ammar, who graduated from SUNY Stony Brook’s School of Medicine at age 22, was the youngest graduate in SUNY medical school history at the time.
The magazine said he also completed research and served as chief resident at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City.
“Doctors are supposed to be among the most trusted professionals in our society. This defendant, on the other hand, used his position to prey upon members of our community,” DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Ray Donovan said in a statement. “By knowingly and intentionally writing prescriptions of addictive opioids that he knew would be resold, he violated not only his oath as a doctor, but the trust of his community.”
Efforts to reach officials or Ammar’s legal representation for comment were unavailing.
