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Seems they are pinning him as the advisor to the HRT Pharms and trying to crucify him-
**broken link removed**
Adviser to pharmacies in steroids case identified
Attorneys in probe say well-known Long Island lawyer provided expertise about how targeted companies should operate
By BRENDAN J. LYONS, Senior writer
First published: Sunday, March 11, 2007
A Long Island lawyer who built a nationally renowned criminal-defense practice around steroid use has emerged as a legal adviser behind a maze of Florida pharmacies and wellness centers that were raided by authorities last week.
Former amateur bodybuilder Rick Collins, the author of "Legal Muscle: Anabolics in America" and a self-described expert in sports drug defense and nutritional supplements, allegedly provided legal advice and an operational framework to several of the people and companies targeted in the sprawling criminal case, attorneys in the case said.
Collins is a staunch advocate of steroid use in general, who believes the drugs have been wrongly criminalized. He's testified before Congress on the issue and emerged in recent years as a central figure in a subculture that also believes steroids and other similar drugs are more beneficial than harmful.
Collins and his law clerk dispense legal advice on the Internet where participants discuss issues such as where to get steroids and what to do if they're arrested for drug possession.
In recent years, Collins was best known as one of the attorneys for Patrick Arnold, who was convicted as a co-conspirator in the BALCO Laboratories case in San Francisco, in which allegations of widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes, including baseball star Barry Bonds, were exposed by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Collins' client list also includes Signature Compounding Pharmacy of Orlando, which prosecutors have characterized as a central target in their ongoing crackdown on pharmacies that are part of a suspected nationwide illicit supply line of controlled substances, according to sources in the case.
So far, more than 15 residents of New York and Florida, including several doctors and pharmacists, have been charged under felony indictments filed in Albany County. District Attorney David Soares said more arrests are pending and he has said that Signature's client lists includes "many" pro athletes and celebrities.
But after prosecutors unveiled their case during a series of raids and arrests nearly two weeks ago, several defense attorneys have begun raising questions about whether their clients had criminal intentions. They said some defendants believe they were operating legally because of assurances they claim Collins had been making to them in the days and months leading up to the raids.
"They were referred to him and they paid him legal fees for advice on the proper way to operate their business, and I emphasize the proper way," said Terence L. Kindlon, an Albany attorney representing Dr. Gary Brandwein, of Boca Raton, Fla., who was arrested last week.
John P. Contini, a Fort Lauderdale attorney for owners of one of several wellness centers that funneled business to Signature Pharmacy, said his clients shut down their operation last week amid fears they might be arrested.
Contini said his clients, whom he declined to identify, told him the blueprint for their operation was crafted by Collins.
The wellness center operators hired Collins on the advice of Robert and Naomi Loomis, both pharmacists and the owner-operators of Signature Pharmacy, Contini said.
Robert and Naomi Loomis, who are married, were arrested Feb. 27 along with Robert Loomis' brother, Kenneth, also a pharmacist at Signature, and Kirk Calvert, Signature's marketing director.
Collins did not return telephone calls last week seeking comment. He has not been identified as a target in the investigation and is not accused of violating any laws, prosecutors said.
Marc Gann, Collins' law partner, said Saturday their firm is assisting attorneys who are defending Signature Pharmacy's operators in the criminal case. He did not directly address the allegations being made about Collins by other attorneys in the case.
"It just strikes me as bizarre what many of these people are saying," Gann said, declining further comment.
However, lawyers for several Florida residents indicted or under investigation contend Collins helped devise the framework for the intertwined businesses, and he allegedly gave them legal advice.
Authorities in the case said up to 24 people are expected to be arrested in Albany for drug- and prescription-related charges before it's over. The case is built around a New York law requiring a face-to-face consultation between a physician and patient before the doctor can issue a prescription.
Some attorneys have challenged whether that law applies to cases in which a patient in New York consults with a doctor in another state. However, prosecutors allege the defendants in this case conspired to break laws and set up a system in which everyone involved, including doctors, knew they were writing prescriptions for people who lacked a valid medical purpose for getting the drugs.
In some instances, authorities said, the Web-based companies paid doctors thousands of dollars a week or up to $50 per prescription to "rubber stamp" their signatures and DEA numbers on the prescriptions. Information obtained during a 60-day wiretap of Signature's business last year showed that one doctor had written 3,100 prescriptions in a 60-day period.
In the case, investigators said they've uncovered a maze of pharmacies and Web-based wellness centers that were engaged in bidding wars for the participating doctors. The upshot is that thousands of unwarranted prescriptions, especially for steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs, were being distributed nationwide, including to professional athletes.
Internet-based companies such as Palm Beach Rejuvenation in Jupiter, Fla., had "boiler rooms" set up where mostly young men, with no medical backgrounds, would field phone calls and e-mails from prospective customers. The workers crafted prescription plans that were faxed or e-mailed to doctors who then signed the slips with no real doctor-patient relationship, authorities said.
Signature Pharmacy was the main supplier for these companies, officials said, dispensing an untold number of prescriptions through express-mail couriers.
Charles R. Holloman, an Ocala, Fla., attorney defending Dr. Robert Carlson, one of the doctors used by Palm Beach Rejuvenation, questioned his client's culpability following Carlson's recent arraignment on a multicount felony indictment.
Holloman held up documents he said were sent to his client last fall by Signature Pharmacy asserting that everything being done was legal.
"Signature, as sure as the devil, had to know something about what's going on," Holloman said, adding: "I'm not throwing off on them. We're responsible for whatever we're responsible for ... (but) they're giving a legal opinion ... and they're not lawyers."
A week before the raids, Collins visited Signature Pharmacy and Palm Beach Rejuvenation, a source in the case confirmed.
When agents stormed Signature Pharmacy on Feb. 27, they discovered notes on workers' desks with call-lists of attorneys in case they were raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration or Food and Drug Administration.
Over the past two months, Albany attorneys retained by Signature Pharmacy before anyone was arrested had called prosecutors here trying to get them to disclose whether there was a grand jury investigation.
James E. Long, an Albany attorney who represents Palm Beach Rejuvenation's owners, brothers Glen and George Stephanos, declined to confirm they hired Collins for legal advice. However, another person familiar with the company said the Stephanos brothers had retained Collins.
Long said his clients had a high confidence their business was complying with the law. "They had consulted with New York counsel, who I'm not at liberty to disclose," Long said.
Long said a "majority" of Palm Beach Rejuvenation's prescriptions were forwarded to Signature Pharmacy. Investigators in the case said Signature's business, fueled by its booming Internet-based clients, saw its sales revenue jump from $500,000 in 2002 to nearly $40 million last year.
Contini, whose clients shut down their Fort Lauderdale wellness center last week, said they told him Collins had helped set up the blueprint for their business after they paid him a $1,500 retainer and additional fees related to Collins' $500-an-hour rate. The wellness center was a referral agency for Signature, and workers at Signature also steered business to the company, according to transcripts of wiretaps filed in the case.
"I believe he (Collins) is going to end up needing a lawyer himself," Contini said.
Contini contacted Albany County prosecutors last week, pledging his clients' cooperation in exchange for a deal that might prevent them from being charged in the case. Albany County Assistant District Attorney Christopher Baynes confirmed prosecutors are in discussions with Contini. He declined further comment except to say his office is consulting with federal prosecutors who may be conducting a parallel investigation involving Contini's clients.
The Fort Lauderdale wellness center operators are ready to tell authorities about the legal advice they received from Collins during a conference call witnessed by four people, Contini said.
Brendan J. Lyons can be reached at 454-5547 or by e-mail at [email protected]."
The witch hunt continues..........
**broken link removed**
Adviser to pharmacies in steroids case identified
Attorneys in probe say well-known Long Island lawyer provided expertise about how targeted companies should operate
By BRENDAN J. LYONS, Senior writer
First published: Sunday, March 11, 2007
A Long Island lawyer who built a nationally renowned criminal-defense practice around steroid use has emerged as a legal adviser behind a maze of Florida pharmacies and wellness centers that were raided by authorities last week.
Former amateur bodybuilder Rick Collins, the author of "Legal Muscle: Anabolics in America" and a self-described expert in sports drug defense and nutritional supplements, allegedly provided legal advice and an operational framework to several of the people and companies targeted in the sprawling criminal case, attorneys in the case said.
Collins is a staunch advocate of steroid use in general, who believes the drugs have been wrongly criminalized. He's testified before Congress on the issue and emerged in recent years as a central figure in a subculture that also believes steroids and other similar drugs are more beneficial than harmful.
Collins and his law clerk dispense legal advice on the Internet where participants discuss issues such as where to get steroids and what to do if they're arrested for drug possession.
In recent years, Collins was best known as one of the attorneys for Patrick Arnold, who was convicted as a co-conspirator in the BALCO Laboratories case in San Francisco, in which allegations of widespread use of performance-enhancing drugs by professional athletes, including baseball star Barry Bonds, were exposed by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Collins' client list also includes Signature Compounding Pharmacy of Orlando, which prosecutors have characterized as a central target in their ongoing crackdown on pharmacies that are part of a suspected nationwide illicit supply line of controlled substances, according to sources in the case.
So far, more than 15 residents of New York and Florida, including several doctors and pharmacists, have been charged under felony indictments filed in Albany County. District Attorney David Soares said more arrests are pending and he has said that Signature's client lists includes "many" pro athletes and celebrities.
But after prosecutors unveiled their case during a series of raids and arrests nearly two weeks ago, several defense attorneys have begun raising questions about whether their clients had criminal intentions. They said some defendants believe they were operating legally because of assurances they claim Collins had been making to them in the days and months leading up to the raids.
"They were referred to him and they paid him legal fees for advice on the proper way to operate their business, and I emphasize the proper way," said Terence L. Kindlon, an Albany attorney representing Dr. Gary Brandwein, of Boca Raton, Fla., who was arrested last week.
John P. Contini, a Fort Lauderdale attorney for owners of one of several wellness centers that funneled business to Signature Pharmacy, said his clients shut down their operation last week amid fears they might be arrested.
Contini said his clients, whom he declined to identify, told him the blueprint for their operation was crafted by Collins.
The wellness center operators hired Collins on the advice of Robert and Naomi Loomis, both pharmacists and the owner-operators of Signature Pharmacy, Contini said.
Robert and Naomi Loomis, who are married, were arrested Feb. 27 along with Robert Loomis' brother, Kenneth, also a pharmacist at Signature, and Kirk Calvert, Signature's marketing director.
Collins did not return telephone calls last week seeking comment. He has not been identified as a target in the investigation and is not accused of violating any laws, prosecutors said.
Marc Gann, Collins' law partner, said Saturday their firm is assisting attorneys who are defending Signature Pharmacy's operators in the criminal case. He did not directly address the allegations being made about Collins by other attorneys in the case.
"It just strikes me as bizarre what many of these people are saying," Gann said, declining further comment.
However, lawyers for several Florida residents indicted or under investigation contend Collins helped devise the framework for the intertwined businesses, and he allegedly gave them legal advice.
Authorities in the case said up to 24 people are expected to be arrested in Albany for drug- and prescription-related charges before it's over. The case is built around a New York law requiring a face-to-face consultation between a physician and patient before the doctor can issue a prescription.
Some attorneys have challenged whether that law applies to cases in which a patient in New York consults with a doctor in another state. However, prosecutors allege the defendants in this case conspired to break laws and set up a system in which everyone involved, including doctors, knew they were writing prescriptions for people who lacked a valid medical purpose for getting the drugs.
In some instances, authorities said, the Web-based companies paid doctors thousands of dollars a week or up to $50 per prescription to "rubber stamp" their signatures and DEA numbers on the prescriptions. Information obtained during a 60-day wiretap of Signature's business last year showed that one doctor had written 3,100 prescriptions in a 60-day period.
In the case, investigators said they've uncovered a maze of pharmacies and Web-based wellness centers that were engaged in bidding wars for the participating doctors. The upshot is that thousands of unwarranted prescriptions, especially for steroids, human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing drugs, were being distributed nationwide, including to professional athletes.
Internet-based companies such as Palm Beach Rejuvenation in Jupiter, Fla., had "boiler rooms" set up where mostly young men, with no medical backgrounds, would field phone calls and e-mails from prospective customers. The workers crafted prescription plans that were faxed or e-mailed to doctors who then signed the slips with no real doctor-patient relationship, authorities said.
Signature Pharmacy was the main supplier for these companies, officials said, dispensing an untold number of prescriptions through express-mail couriers.
Charles R. Holloman, an Ocala, Fla., attorney defending Dr. Robert Carlson, one of the doctors used by Palm Beach Rejuvenation, questioned his client's culpability following Carlson's recent arraignment on a multicount felony indictment.
Holloman held up documents he said were sent to his client last fall by Signature Pharmacy asserting that everything being done was legal.
"Signature, as sure as the devil, had to know something about what's going on," Holloman said, adding: "I'm not throwing off on them. We're responsible for whatever we're responsible for ... (but) they're giving a legal opinion ... and they're not lawyers."
A week before the raids, Collins visited Signature Pharmacy and Palm Beach Rejuvenation, a source in the case confirmed.
When agents stormed Signature Pharmacy on Feb. 27, they discovered notes on workers' desks with call-lists of attorneys in case they were raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration or Food and Drug Administration.
Over the past two months, Albany attorneys retained by Signature Pharmacy before anyone was arrested had called prosecutors here trying to get them to disclose whether there was a grand jury investigation.
James E. Long, an Albany attorney who represents Palm Beach Rejuvenation's owners, brothers Glen and George Stephanos, declined to confirm they hired Collins for legal advice. However, another person familiar with the company said the Stephanos brothers had retained Collins.
Long said his clients had a high confidence their business was complying with the law. "They had consulted with New York counsel, who I'm not at liberty to disclose," Long said.
Long said a "majority" of Palm Beach Rejuvenation's prescriptions were forwarded to Signature Pharmacy. Investigators in the case said Signature's business, fueled by its booming Internet-based clients, saw its sales revenue jump from $500,000 in 2002 to nearly $40 million last year.
Contini, whose clients shut down their Fort Lauderdale wellness center last week, said they told him Collins had helped set up the blueprint for their business after they paid him a $1,500 retainer and additional fees related to Collins' $500-an-hour rate. The wellness center was a referral agency for Signature, and workers at Signature also steered business to the company, according to transcripts of wiretaps filed in the case.
"I believe he (Collins) is going to end up needing a lawyer himself," Contini said.
Contini contacted Albany County prosecutors last week, pledging his clients' cooperation in exchange for a deal that might prevent them from being charged in the case. Albany County Assistant District Attorney Christopher Baynes confirmed prosecutors are in discussions with Contini. He declined further comment except to say his office is consulting with federal prosecutors who may be conducting a parallel investigation involving Contini's clients.
The Fort Lauderdale wellness center operators are ready to tell authorities about the legal advice they received from Collins during a conference call witnessed by four people, Contini said.
Brendan J. Lyons can be reached at 454-5547 or by e-mail at [email protected]."
The witch hunt continues..........
