LOS ANGELES, March 16 (UPI) -- A Los Angeles doctor found guilty of illegally prescribing drugs wrote more prescriptions than most hospitals, investigators say.
Carlos Estiandan, 68, faces up to 11 years in prison, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was convicted Monday of about 40 counts of illegal prescribing.
District Attorney Steve Cooley said the Drug Enforcement Administration found that in 2008 Estiandan wrote more prescriptions than any other individual doctor in the country and more than any hospital except Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
"The conviction in this case illustrates a serious social problem where unethical, greedy medical practitioners aid and abet the self-inflicted harm of those addicted to prescription drugs," Cooley said in a statement.
Cooley said Estiandan was charged after a three-year investigation. One sheriff's deputy, working undercover, received 12 prescriptions without an examination.
