A Swanton woman has been sentenced to five years of federal probation for participating in a scheme to fraudulently obtain prescription painkillers.
Lindsey Cox, 37, earlier pleaded guilty to conspiring to acquire controlled substances by fraud as well as theft in connection with health care.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, between April and November 2016, while Cox was employed at a dental center in St. Albans, she conspired with another employee to generate fake prescriptions for controlled substances and forge the signature of a licensed prescriber.
Cox and others then filled the fake prescriptions — typically for Oxycodone — at several area pharmacies. Investigators identified 46 fake prescriptions altogether.
Court records show that the other employee, Tammy Larocque, had been sentenced in 2019 to two years of federal probation for possession of Oxycodone.
In addition, prosecutors said that between May 2016 and August 2017, Cox embezzled $71,900 from her employer by manipulating and falsifying payment records in the dental center’s billing software.
She pleaded guilty to those two charges in 2019.
During her sentencing at the Burlington federal courthouse on Monday, the judge ordered Cox to pay the embezzled amount as restitution to RVI Dental Center.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and the St. Albans Police Department investigated the case, together with the U.S. Border Patrol and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department.
