Operations Manager of Wholesale Drug Distributor Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Role in Scheme to Buy Nearly $50m of Prescription Medications Under False Pretenses and[...]

NEWARK, N.J. - A North Jersey man was sentenced on July 29, 2026, to 30 months' imprisonment for conspiring with doctors and others to purchase nearly $50 million worth of oncology and ophthalmology medications, under false pretenses, and then reselling these medications for profit, United States Attorney Robert Frazer announced.

Frank Incognito, 46, of Englishtown, New Jersey, previously pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to an information charging him with conspiring to unlawfully resell various medications, including oncology and ophthalmology medications, that previously had been purchased by a healthcare entity. These medications had been purchased through the medical licenses and offices of various doctors, with the express representation and on the condition that the medications would be used to treat the doctors' own patients. In actuality, these medications were not used to treat the doctors' patients; instead, the medications were resold by Incognito and/or his coconspirators for profit.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

For several years, Incognito worked as an operations manager of a wholesale drug distributor, operating under the New Jersey corporations of VRC Medical Services and Investigational Drug Delivery (VRC/IDD), located in Sewaren, New Jersey. Incognito conspired with others at VRC/IDD, as well as multiple doctors, to obtain expensive prescription medications that Incognito and his coconspirators otherwise would not be able to obtain on their own. These medications were "straw-purchased" through the doctors' medical practices, and then Incognito and his co-conspirators illegally transferred and resold those medications. Primarily, these medications were cold-chain biologic infusion medications that typically are used to treat cancers, macular degeneration, and autoimmune diseases.

In purchasing the drugs, Incognito and his coconspirators made numerous false and misleading representations to the pharmaceutical manufacturers and authorized distributors, including that the doctors were purchasing the drugs to treat their own patients, and that the drugs would not be resold or redistributed to others. In actuality, none of the drugs were administered to any of the doctors' own patients but were ultimately sold to customers of the VRC/IDD businesses for a profit.

The scheme in which Incognito participated ran from approximately June 2012 through January 2019. During this time, Incognito conspired with others to buy and sell more than $47.7 million worth of the prescription drugs. Incognito is the third defendant who has been sentenced in connection with this fraudulent scheme, in addition to doctors Anise Kachadourian and Joel Lerner.

U.S. Attorney Frazer credited special agents of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations New York Field Office, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Fernando McMillan, and special agents of U.S. Attorney's Office, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge Matthew Maltese, with the investigation leading to today's guilty plea.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Joseph McFarlane and Sara Aliabadi of the U.S Attorney's Office in Camden.

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Defense Counsel: Rocco Cipparone, Esq.