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NJ pharmacy company owner pleads innocent in steroid case

NJ pharmacy company owner pleads innocent in steroid case March 8, 2007 The owner of a New Jersey pharmaceutical company, accused of illegally selling steroids and human growth hormone, was arraigned Thursday on drug-related and money-laundering charges. Daniel McGlone, 54, of North Brunswick, N.J., pleaded innocent in a Providence, R.I. courtroom and will remain free on a $500,000 property bond he posted in New Jersey. Federal Magistrate Lincoln Almond ordered McGlone to stay in that state except for trips to Rhode Island for court appearances and to meet with his attorneys. He is charged with a total of 80 counts regarding health care fraud, conspiracy, illegal drug distribution and 51 counts of money laundering. McGlone, owner of American Pharmaceutical Group, is accused of advertising steroids and human growth hormone in bodybuilding publications. When customers called, he allegedly paid two doctors _ Ana Maria Santi and Victor Mariani _ to write medically unnecessary prescriptions for the substances. Prosecutors say McGlone made $860,810 through the alleged scheme from April 2004 until August 2006. He is charged with health care fraud, conspiracy, illegal drug distribution and 51 counts of money laundering. Santi was also charged and was previously stripped of her license to practice medicine. Mariani, a licensed physician with a practice in New York City, was charged separately and agreed to enter a guilty plea Friday. A state prosecutor in upstate New York is investigating a similar alleged ring that operated out of Florida. Customers of that operation reportedly included several professional athletes. But the U.S. Attorney's office in Rhode Island has said it doesn't know if professional athletes were customers of McGlone's business.