Doctor Indicted on Charges that He Sold Oxycodone Prescriptions to Patients with no Legitimate Need for the Addictive Opioid Pills, Including Patients He Knew Were Drug Addicts or Drug Dealers
Dr. Byung Kang faces 1st degree charges for allegedly prescribing oxycodone that killed a young man. Kang is a doctor from Passaic County that has been charged with selling prescriptions for high-dose pills of the highly addictive opioid painkiller oxycodone to many patients, some of which he knew were drug addicts or drug dealers. He is faced with a 1st degree charge of strict liability for drug- induced death of a 26 year old male in Clifton N.J.
He is charged with the following:
• Strict liability for drug-induced death (1st degree).
• Money laundering (1st degree).
• Conspiracy (2nd degree)
• Unlawful distribution of oxycodone (2nd degree)
• Unlawful distribution of oxycodone within 1,000 feet of a school (3rd degree).
• Filing a fraudulent state tax return (3rd degree).
• Failure to pay Income Tax (3rd degree)
Kang’s wife, Soo Kang, was the receptionist for Kang’s medical practice and is charged along with her husband for:
• Money laundering.
• Conspiracy
• Tax-related counts of indictment.
The charges are the result of an investigation by the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) New Jersey Tactical Diversion Squad in Newark, and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs’ Enforcement Bureau.
 Kang was arrested May 2016 on a charge of illegally distributing oxycodone. In July 2016, Kang entered a Consent Order with the State Board of Medical Examiners prohibiting him from practicing medicine until further action by the Board.
Between June 2010 and April 2016, Kang is suspected to have sold a 90 count prescriptions for 20 mg oxycodone pills to his patients for about $150 to $200, with no apparent necessity for it. According to Kang’s own records, he has the knowledge that many of those patients were addicted to the potent pain killers, or they were distributors. Michael Justice, a 26 year old male from Clifton, was found dead of an oxycodone overdose on Dec. 6, 2014 in his home, where empty bottles for oxycodone prescribed by dr. Kang were discovered, including an empty bottle for a prescription filled just five days earlier.Â
Eighteen months before Justice’s death, his mother called Kang and threatened to call police if Kang did not stop prescribing oxycodone to her son, but Kang allegedly continued to write without medical validation until his death.
“Doctors are supposed to preserve health and life, but Dr. Kang allegedly turned his back on all medical and ethical standards, not to mention all standards of human decency,†said Attorney General Porrino. “By indiscriminately peddling this dangerous painkiller – which has been the gateway to so much opiate addiction, misery and death – Dr. Kang allegedly caused the death of a vulnerable young man and put himself on a par with every street-corner drug dealer.â€
“Oxycodone is at the heart of an epidemic of opiate addiction that is killing too many young people in New Jersey, either directly through pill overdoses or by moving them on to the cheaper alternative of heroin,†said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We’re attacking the problem at its source through investigations targeting those who callously profit from the diversion of prescription painkillers, including licensed professionals.â€
“Unfortunately, this is another example of a doctor who was allegedly more concerned with his financial health than the health of his patients. He allegedly disregarded his patients’ addictions and kept prescribing oxycodone without justification, which resulted in the death of Michael Justice.†said Carl J. Kotowski, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Jersey Division.
Kang was a huge source of oxycodone prescriptions in northern New Jersey. From October 2015 to April 2016, an undercover DEA agent supposedly got hold of seven prescriptions for oxycodone from Kang. The agent indicated that her shoulder felt tight, but when he asked if she was experiencing any pain, she said she was not. Kang did not do any diagnostic tests for her and his physical exam of didn’t last very long. Kang acknowledged that the agent should not be taking oxycodone, but he continued to write 90-count prescriptions of oxycodone, seven times over a period of seven months.
The state seized $564,304 in U.S. currency during the carrying out of a search warrant and seized $869,777 from bank accounts of the Kangs. The money laundering count of the indictment charges that those sums are the proceeds of Dr. Kang’s criminal activity in distributing oxycodone. The state has filed a forfeiture action to seize those proceeds. Byung and Soo Kang are charged with filing fraudulent tax returns and failure to pay income tax for the calendar years ending in 2014 and 2015 for failing to report and pay taxes on the proceeds of the criminal activity.
Deputy Attorney General Heather Hausleben presented the case to the state grand jury for the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau, under the supervision of Deputy Bureau Chief Annmarie Taggart and Bureau Chief Lauren Scarpa Yfantis. Attorney General Porrino commended all of the attorneys, detectives and investigators who investigated the case for the Division of Criminal Justice and Division of Consumer Affairs’ Enforcement Bureau. Attorney General Porrino also commended the special agents of the DEA’s New Jersey Tactical Diversion Squad in Newark who conducted the investigation under the leadership of Special Agent in Charge Carl J. Kotowski. Deputy Attorney General Susan Wolansky is handling the state’s forfeiture action in this case.
The indictment is merely an accusation and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.Â
The indictment was handed up to Superior Court Judge Timothy P. Lydon in Mercer County, who assigned the case to Passaic County, where the defendants will be ordered to appear in court at a later date for arraignment.
