An Irvine-based doctor who allegedly did his shady business transactions at Starbucks was arrested last night after a year-long investigation.
Alvin Ming-Czech Yee, 43, allegedly met with more than 10 “patients” a night — usually at a Starbucks — and wrote them prescriptions for drugs in exchange for $600, according to a Department of Justice news release.
A third of the people Yee did transactions with were 25 or younger, the DOJ says, adding that in at least six cases he wrote prescriptions for people younger than 21, who under federal law are considered minors.
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Yee's favorite drugs to prescribe, according to court documents: OxyContin, Vicodin, Xanax, Adderall and Suboxone. What's more, people from as far as Seattle and Detroit, who were later arrested with large amoungs of opiates, came to Orange County to get prescriptions from Lee, according to the DOJ release.
He's expected to be arraigned in Santa Ana today on a 56-count indictment alleging he prescribed drugs “outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose.”
The LATimes is reporting that one “young adult” who was prescribed an opiate by Yee has died, adding that the coroner's office is still investigating.
Just two of the more than 50 counts that Yee faces for illegal distribution of a controlled substance by a medical practitioner carry a sentence of up to 60 years in prison.
