DEA: Athletes' Pain Nurse Ran Opioid Scheme

Joan Rubinger, a nurse practitioner who built a sports medicine practice treating professional athletes, is accused by the Drug Enforcement Administration of illegally prescribing hundreds of thousands of painkillers to clients in more than 20 states.

Federal authorities say Rubinger, 49, prescribed 260,000 pills containing controlled substances over a four-year period, according to court papers unsealed at the request of The Associated Press.

She has not been criminally charged. In March she agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle a Justice Department civil complaint without admitting wrongdoing, and last month the DEA revoked her authority to prescribe controlled substances.

What the DEA Alleges

The DEA said in court filings that Rubinger dispensed drugs including Oxycodone, Percocet and Xanax on hundreds of occasions with no legitimate medical purpose, and that the operation grew "from professional athletes" to other clients — among them members of an Ohio street gang, a confessed New Jersey drug trafficker and a New York City model.

New clients were required to follow a document Rubinger called "THE RULES," court records show. She told one prospective client the guidelines were meant "to minimize the attention we attract from the DEA," according to a DEA seizure affidavit.

Investigators said she collected hundreds of thousands of dollars through a digital payment app, circulated a price list for painkillers and demanded payment before writing prescriptions. Getting medication was "like at McDonald's," she told clients, according to the filings. "You gotta pay for your burger before they hand it to you."

Authorities also allege she coached clients over an encrypted messaging app on how to keep pharmacies from flagging their prescriptions. The DEA affidavit called the operation "covert and slinking."

Prosecutors accused Rubinger in court filings of violating federal drug statutes and regulations 900 times.