In 2008, Denton police began fielding reports from women who complained that their physician, Dr. Ramon Cruz, was overstepping professional boundaries. One claimed Cruz had put his hand down the front of her pajama pants. Another alleged he had grabbed her from behind and put his hand under her shirt.
None of the four reported incidents resulted in criminal charges, but they did prompt a disciplinary panel of the Texas Medical Board to suspend his license on March 14, 2011, after determining that Cruz posed a "continuing threat to public welfare." Cruz told WFAA at the time that his accusers were mad that he decided to stop treating them.
The suspension lasted less than a month. On April 8, TMB agreed to lift the suspension provided that Cruz underwent a psychiatric evaluation, received professional boundaries training and agreed to see only male patients. The board changed its order somewhat in November 2011 when Cruz, after admitting to the TMB that he had "crossed the line" with one patient in 2008, agreed to obtain a mentoring physician and have his practice temporarily monitored.
It was the month before he signed the last order that Generx, a Carrollton-based pharmacy owned by husband and wife Linus and Dorothy Nwosu, saw business boom, particularly among cash-paying customers. Whereas cash sales in previous months had hovered around $16,000, they quadrupled in October to more than $67,000 and stayed high over the next several months. The same thing happened at Generx's Irving location.
The reason for the pharmacy's new-found success was simple, according to an IRS criminal investigator's affidavit: Cruz was running a pill mill, and he was using the Nwosus to fill the hydrocodone and Alprazolam prescriptions his office wrote. Over the course of about four months, Generx's two locations filled 3,003 prescriptions from Cruz's patients.
The affidavit was filed in federal court as part of the IRS' attempt to seize $476,190.01 from the Nwosus' bank accounts. The agency says the money represents proceeds from their participation in Cruz's pill mill business and that they have concealed it to avoid paying taxes.
Messages have been left for both Cruz and the Nwosus' attorney.
