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A now-former employee stole $8.2 million worth of HIV medications from a New Jersey veterans hospital pharmacy that she sold to a fence from Bergen County, federal authorities said Wednesday.
Surveillance video showed pharmacy technician Lisa M. Hoffman of Orange “regularly taking dozens of bottles of HIV medications from the shelves of the outpatient pharmacy at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in East Orange, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said.
The video then shows her “placing them in a white mail bin, and then transferring the medications from the mail bin to her bag and exiting with the stolen medication,” the U.S. attorney said.
A former Veterans Affairs pharmacy technician allegedly stole $8.2 million in HIV medication and sold it to an associate for cash, federal authorities charged Wednesday.
Surveillance video allegedly captured Lisa M. Hoffman, 48, of Orange regularly taking dozens of medicine bottles from the shelves of the federal Veterans Affairs Medical Center s outpatient pharmacy in East Orange between August 2017 and November 2019, acting U.S. Attorney Rachael Honig said in a statement.
Hoffman then allegedly took the medication to her associate, Wagner Checonolasco, 33, of Lyndhurst, and sold it for cash. Checonolasco then resold it to others, Honig said.
Authorities charged Hoffman with theft of medical products, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and a fine of at least $1 million.