Saratoga-area surgeon gets 6 1/2 years for selling oxycodone prescriptions

PHOTOGRAPHER: Steven Cook

A former orthopedic surgeon who practiced in part in the Saratoga Springs area received more than six years in federal prison today after admitting to selling controlled drug prescriptions for cash.

Jeffrey Gundel, 51, of Gansevoort, pleaded guilty earlier to unlawfully distributing oxycodone.

He admitted to writing more than 200 prescriptions from 2011 to 2014 for no legitimate medical purpose and then receiving kickbacks for writing them.

Gundel, who practiced in the Glens Falls and Saratoga Springs areas, received 6 1⁄2 years in federal prison. He gave up his right to practice medicine as part of the plea.

Gundel’s actions led to at least 59,000 oxycodone pills reaching the Capital Region black market, federal prosecutors said.

“Those who misuse their privilege to prescribe and distribute controlled substances need to understand that they will be investigated and prosecuted just like the criminals selling heroin and other dangerous drugs on the street,” U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian said in a statement.

U.S. District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino handed down the 78-month sentence, saying Gundel’s actions meant he “became a common drug dealer,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Gundel admitted to writing a total of 248 prescriptions for 240 oxycodone tablets apiece.

He sometimes wrote them to patients he never saw or even communicated with, including patients that turned out to be undercover police officers.

He then accepted payments later.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne A. Myers wrote in the prosecution’s sentencing memorandum:

“In this case, despite all the advantages afforded to him in life — an advanced education, a nice home, a family, social status as a surgeon, and sizeable earning power, reflected by the annual salary exceeding $500,000 he made at the time of his arrest — the defendant chose, freely and unnecessarily, to use his prescription pad to line his own pockets.”

Though lengthy, Gundel’s final sentence is consistent with defense arguments for a lesser sentence. Prosecutors asked for a sentence within the federal guidelines of between nine years and 11 years, three months.

Gundel defense attorney James Knox, in his own sentencing memorandum filed earlier, asked for a below-guideline sentence.

Knox argued his client suffered a head injury in a 2008 slip and fall that required the temporary removal of part of Gundel’s skull. While he returned to work, he didn’t perceive the need for a psychological evaluation until “after his life went completely off the rails.”

Gundel’s mental state resulted in an inability to perceive danger and an inability to make value-based judgements, Knox wrote, leaving him “an ideal patsy for the machinations of people who he thought were friends.”

“But Mr. Gundel has accepted the responsibility for this scheme, in acknowledgement of the fact that, without him as a medical doctor, the scheme would not have been possible in the first place,” Knox wrote.

Oxycodone is a narcotic drug prescribed to treat severe pain, but it is addictive and often abused, federal prosecutors said. It is also seen as a gateway drug to heroin.