In deciding to revoke Sina Salehi’s licence to be a pharmacist, the disciplinary panel laid out a long list of misconduct and transgressions.
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panel → decide → misconduct
Over four years, while at the helm of three pharmacies in the Greater Toronto Area and one in Thunder Bay, Salehi diverted prescription drugs to the black market, submitted insurance claims for prescriptions he never filled and misled investigators who questioned him about it, the Ontario College of Pharmacists found.
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College → divert → Pharmacists
The practices, they said, were “beyond deplorable.”
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they → say → ?
During one 10-month stretch, even though one of his Thornhill pharmacies’ was closed, the college said Salehi continued to order drugs as if it was open, many of them controlled substances such as oxycodone.
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many → close → oxycodone
The college did not detail where investigators believe drugs allegedly diverted by Salehi ended up.
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drugs → detail → Salehi
However, newly released allegations provide a possible hint — as well as a connection between Salehi and the sprawling police corruption investigation known as Project South.
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allegations → release → South
Project South investigators allege Salehi supplied medications to Brian Da Costa, an accused drug trafficker and alleged co-conspirator of Toronto police Const. Timothy Barnhardt, the officer at the centre of the scandal who is accused of leaking confidential police information to criminals for money.
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who → allege → money
Da Costa’s lawyer declined to comment.
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lawyer → decline → ?
The allegation is contained in documents known as an information-to-obtain a warrant, or ITO, filed by police in January.
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allegation → contain → January
The ITO, which does not specify which drugs Salehi is alleged to have supplied to Da Costa, reflects what investigators believed about their targets at the time it was filed.
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it → specify → time
None of the allegations in that document have been proven or tested in court.
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None → prove → court
Salehi has not been criminally charged.
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Salehi → charge → ?
At the professional disciplinary hearing in April that led to his licence being revoked, Salehi denied all of the college’s allegations, but would not contest the regulator’s evidence.
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Salehi → lead → evidence
In response to related lawsuits filed by an ex-business partner and pharmaceutical wholesaler, Salehi has said he did nothing wrong.
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he → file → nothing
A lawyer representing Salehi declined to answer questions from the Star.
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lawyer → represent → Star
The college’s case against Salehi describes a man who turned to fraud in the pursuit of profits, disregarding professional ethics and patient care.
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who → describe → ethics
Perhaps even more troubling, the case highlights how Salehi was able to continue his operation for years despite numerous red flags.
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Salehi → highlight → flags
Pharmacist on investigators’ radar in 2020
Salehi landed on investigators’ radars in 2020 following a York Regional Police investigation into websites selling black market prescription drugs and steroids.
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Salehi → land → drugs
Officers executed a search warrant that October at a luxurious house in Richmond Hill, tucked behind a gated driveway with trees trimmed into spirals.
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Officers → execute → spirals
They found large amounts of prescription drugs: pill bottles, narcotics in vials, syringes with needles.
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They → find → needles
Some bore labels from Salehi’s pharmacies.
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Some → bear → pharmacies
Just inside the home’s arched front door, where a grand staircase swirls around an opulent chandelier, police also found business documents from a Thornhill pharmacy with Salehi’s name on it.
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police → swirl → it
Officers charged three people, including one person whose name appeared in documents related to the Thornhill pharmacy.
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name → charge → pharmacy
York Regional Police declined to answer questions about its investigation in 2020, or why he has not been charged in connection with Project South.
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he → decline → South
The pharmacist regulator opened its first investigation into Salehi a few weeks later.
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regulator → open → Salehi
It found a Pandora’s box of alleged misconduct that would eventually spark two more probes.
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that → find → probes
As the regulator started to dig, it found that during various windows of time between 2019 and 2023, Salehi diverted various drugs to unauthorized recipients and submitted claims for prescriptions he didn’t actually dispense, including claims for patients who were already dead.
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who → start → patients
Some of the dubious prescriptions were billed to the publicly funded Ontario Drug Benefit Program.
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Some → bill → Program
The provincial government revoked Salehi’s access to the program in 2022 over allegedly “unsupported and invalid claims.”
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government → revoke → claims
One former pharmacy assistant who worked for Salehi told the college that drugs Salehi ordered often didn’t make it to pharmacy shelves, and were instead placed in a plastic bag and ferried to the pharmacist’s car.
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Salehi → work → car
In one case, Salehi was accused of closing Neighbour’s Drug Mart in Thornhill for about 10 months in 2022 and 2023, but continuing to order about $1 million worth of medications.
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Salehi → accuse → medications
“While the pharmacy was ostensibly temporarily closed, and in fact verified on a number of occasions to indeed be closed and not operating, it was nevertheless purchasing significant volumes of narcotics, prescription drugs, targeted substances, controlled drugs, which were not ever accounted for,” Jean-Claude Killey, a lawyer representing the college, said at Salehi’s disciplinary hearing.
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Killey → close → hearing
“The inference we would ask you to draw is they were diverted to unauthorized sources.”
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they → ask → sources
The Star’s investigative board outlines the links between characters in the Project South police
Missing medication includes oxycodone, Botox and steroids
The list of missing medications includes about 114,000 tablets of oxycodone.
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list → outline → oxycodone
The college later concluded Salehi had illegally redirected dozens of other drugs from various pharmacies: Botox, the sleeping pill zopiclone, an erectile dysfunction drug, anabolic steroids, stimulants used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, as well as a half-dozen other medications that are sometimes used by athletes and bodybuilders as performance-enhancing drugs.
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that → conclude → drugs
In Thunder Bay, where his pharmacy was attached to a clinic that treats opioid addiction, Salehi is accused of leaving scores of desperate patients in the lurch.
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Salehi → attach → lurch
In January 2023, in the midst of a dispute with his landlord, Salehi “emptied the pharmacy stock” and took its computers without telling anyone else, the college investigator’s report said.
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report → empty → anyone
The following morning, a pharmacy employee told a college investigator he’d received a text saying 100 patients had shown up for crucial doses, only to find no medications, no pharmacist and no plan to ensure they could access the care they needed.
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they → tell → care
“Many patients receive daily observed doses of methadone and suboxone at the above-mentioned pharmacy,” a college investigator wrote.
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investigator → receive → pharmacy
“These actions placed patients at risk.”
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actions → place → risk
…and 12 more, not listed.
The Aporia
