A doctor and hospital staff accused of illegally administering propofol 4,700 times over five years to about 30 people by stealing others' identities without permission have been indicted.
On the 31st, according to legal sources, the Violent Crimes Investigation Division (Chief Prosecutor So Chang-beom) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, a medical narcotics task force, arrested and indicted Doctor A on charges of violating the Act on the Control of Narcotics, etc. (psychotropics) and the Resident Registration Act. Six employees of the clinic and five recipients were indicted without detention.
Prosecutors said A opened a dermatology procedure clinic in Gangnam District, Seoul, and is accused of illegally providing a total of about 180,000 ml of propofol over 4,700 administrations to 32 people who wanted the drug over five years.
A is also charged with violating the Resident Registration Act by arbitrarily stealing others' identities. This was to evade monitoring of hospitals and clinics' narcotics misuse through the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety's integrated narcotics management system during the process of administering propofol.
According to prosecutors, when it became difficult to repeatedly provide drugs under the recipients' own names, A told them, "If you bring a family member's or acquaintance's resident registration number, I will provide more drugs." Using this method, the resident registration numbers of 121 people were used without permission 1,272 times, it was found.
Prosecutors also charged A with ordering an esthetician without medical qualifications to repeatedly administer propofol.
In Nov. last year, prosecutors analyzed the clinic's integrated narcotics management system records and detected signs of A's crimes. On Jan. they searched A's residence and in May arrested A.
Prosecutors confirmed indications that A purchased expensive luxury goods with revenue from the crimes and are proceeding with procedures to recover criminal proceeds.
A prosecution official said, "We will work to ensure A receives punishment commensurate with the crime," adding, "We will continue to strictly crack down on medical narcotics crimes and support those involved in returning to normal society."