Two North Jersey men have admitted to conspiring with doctors and others to purchase nearly $50 million worth of oncology and ophthalmology medications, under false pretenses, and then diverting and reselling these medications for profit. Frank Incognito, 46, of Englishtown, New Jersey, and Stephen Corba, 50, of Farmingdale, New Jersey, have pleaded guilty to conspiring to unlawfully resell various medications, including expensive oncology and ophthalmology medications, that a healthcare entity previously purchased. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: For years, Corba owned and ran a wholesale drug distributor, operating under New Jersey corporations located in Sewaren, New Jersey. During this time, Incognito worked as the operations manager of this drug distributor.
Corba and Incognito conspired with each other and multiple doctors to obtain expensive prescription medications that Corba and Incognito otherwise would not have been able to obtain on their own. These medications were first “straw-purchased” through the doctors’ medical practices, using the doctors’ medical licenses, and on the express condition that the medications would be used to treat the doctors’ own patients. After the medications were purchased, Corba, Incognito, the doctors, and their co-conspirators illegally transferred and resold the medications to others. Primarily, these medications were cold-chain biologic infusion medications that physicians typically use to treat cancers, macular degeneration, and autoimmune diseases. Corba’s and Incognito’s fraudulent scheme ran from June 2012 through January 2019, and included the purchase and sale of more than $47.5 million in prescription drugs. Doctors Anise Kachadourian, Jon Paul Dadaian, and Joel Lerner also previously pled guilty to their roles in the scheme.