Dr. Sanjay Kumar also charged with money laundering, possession of firearms.
AB Wire
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina announced that the federal grand jury in Greenville returned a 31-count indictment charging physician Sanjay Kumar, age 50, of New Bern, with conspiracy to unlawfully dispense and distribute oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydromorphone, and alprazolam; distribution of oxycodone and alprazolam; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity; and laundering of monetary instruments.
If convicted, the maximum penalties for each charged drug count are 20 years’ imprisonment; a $1 million fine; and a term of supervised release of not less than three years following any term of imprisonment, according to the Justice Department.
Kumar, who was head of New Bern Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, was arrested at a traffic stop in June 2016 following a long investigation by both the Coastal Narcotics Enforcement Team (CNET) and the State Bureau of Investigation.
In summer 2016, Capt. John Whitfield of the Craven County Sheriff’s Office said a warrant search of Kumar’s home at 616 Gethsemane Church Road near New Bern resulted in finding “trafficking levels of controlled substances,” reported Sun Journal.
Kumar was also previously charged on five misdemeanor counts of stalking his neighbors.
Kumar was placed in Craven County Jail in lieu of $2 million bond. Kumar told the judge at the time, “I am going to fight all these charges, humbly and boldly.”