Connecticut DEA Defense Attorney

Last Updated on: 14th December 2025, 10:50 pm

Connecticut DEA Defense Attorney: The Doctor Who Tried to Hire a Hitman While on Bond, the 8th Highest Prescriber (A List That Includes Hospitals), and $200 Prescriptions

Anatoly Braylovsky was a Wallingford doctor who sold opioid prescriptions for cash. Not metaphorically. Literally. He received $1,600 in exchange for a prescription for 150 oxycodone 30mg pills. This happened four times between October 2019 and January 2020 with a confidential source working with law enforcement. The DEA arrested him. He was released on bond to await trial.

Then, while out on bond awaiting trial on federal drug charges, Braylovsky expressed a desire to hire a hitman. He wanted the confidential source who had helped build the case against him killed or intimidated. He met with someone he believed was a hitman to discuss the arrangement. That someone was an undercover law enforcement officer. Braylovsky was arrested again in August 2021 and has been detained ever since.

The sentence: 90 months in federal prison. Seven and a half years. For a physician who went from selling opioid prescriptions, to being arrested, to attempting to hire someone to kill a witness, to being arrested again – all within the span of an ongoing federal prosecution. Connecticut’s prescription monitoring system had access to data from 39 states. The interstate visibility didn’t prevent any of this. The doctor knew he was being investigated and still tried to obstruct the prosecution through murder.

The Hitman Who Wasn’t

Heres how the hitman situation developed. Braylovsky was arrested in 2020 and released on bond. He knew who the confidential source was – the person who had purchased oxycodone prescriptions from him during the investigation. He knew that person’s testimony would be central to the prosecution’s case.

In August 2021, Braylovsky expressed a desire to hire someone to kill or intimidate the source. He wasnt just thinking about it. He took action. He arranged a meeting with someone he beleived could carry out the hit.

That meeting was with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a hitman. The same law enforcement apparatus that had built the drug case against him now had him on tape discussing arrangements to eliminate a witness. He was arrested on August 27, 2021.

Think about what this sequence reveals about how some defendants respond to federal investigation. Braylovsky wasnt facing inevitable conviction based on irrefutable evidence. He was facing a case that depended significantly on witness testimony. His response wasnt to prepare a legal defense. His response was to try to eliminate the witness. That response – documented by the undercover officer – became additional evidence of consciousness of guilt that accompanied him to sentencing.

The guilty plea covered one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute oxycodone and one count of health care fraud. Judge Kari A. Dooley ordered 90 months imprisonment, three years of supervised release, and $199,388.84 in restitution. In a separate civil case, Braylovsky and his practice paid $398,777.68 to settle False Claims Act allegations. Total financial consequences: nearly $600,000 plus seven and a half years in prison.

8th Highest Prescriber – A List That Includes Hospitals

Dr. Katsetos practiced in Stamford and Milford. From November 2011 to October 2013, he authorized more then 2 million dosage units of Schedule II through IV controlled substances to more then 2,000 patients. Two million pills. Two thousand patients. In less then two years.

That prescribing volume made Katsetos the eighth highest prescriber of controlled substances in Connecticut. Heres the detail that makes that ranking staggering: the list includes hospitals. Individual hospitals with dozens of physicians, inpatient pharmacies, emergency departments, and surgical suites – and Katsetos, a single practitioner, ranked eighth among all of them.

The investigation revealed what that volume meant for patients:

• Katsetos’s prescribing created opioid addictions in dozens of patients
• Not just prescribing to people who were already addicted – creating addictions
• Patients who came to him without opioid dependence left his practice with it

One of his patients – a New York woman – died of an overdose. The prescriptions that contributed to her death came from Katsetos. The pills that created the addiction that killed her flowed through his practice. And his prescribing supplied individuals with vast quantities of prescription pills that they illegally distributed to others.

The sentence: 7 years in federal prison. The eighth highest prescriber in a state that includes hospitals in its rankings. Two million dosage units. Dozens of addictions created. One documented death. Seven years.

$200 Prescriptions

David Ciancimino was a 63-year-old Trumbull physician. In October 2020, law enforcement began investigating his prescribing practices for benzodiazepines like Xanax and stimulants like Adderall.

The investigation used undercover federal task force officers. They visited Ciancimino’s office as patients. They paid him $200 during visits. In exchange, they recieved prescriptions for Xanax or Adderall.

Heres the detail that defines the case: they recieved those prescriptions “with little to no medical examination.” Two hundred dollars and minimal medical justification. The prescriptions were issued becuase of the payment, not becuase of documented medical need.

The $200 price point matters for understanding how these cases develop. Ciancimino wasnt operating a high-volume pill mill with patients lined up around the block. He was a physician charging what might look like a reasonable cash-pay office visit fee. But the medical examination that would justify the fee – and justify the prescription – wasnt happening. The payment was for the prescription itself, not for medical care.

The sentence: 46 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. The undercover operations documented exactly what happened during those visits – minimal examination, cash payment, controlled substance prescription. That documentation became the trial evidence.

The Psychiatrist and the Holy Trinity

Dr. Naimetulla Ahmed Syed was a psychiatrist with medical offices in Danbury and New Haven. He was the sole practitioner at both locations. His specialty was psychiatry – a field that legitimately prescribes some controlled substances, particularly benzodiazepines for anxiety disorders.

The settlement allegations tell a different story:

• Syed issued prescriptions for excessive and unsafe amounts of benzodiazepines
• He prescribed controlled substances to individuals displaying red flags of abuse, addiction, or diversion
• He prescribed the “holy trinity” – at least one opioid, one benzodiazepine, and one muscle relaxant to the same patients

Think about what the holy trinity means coming from a psychiatrist. Opioids are for pain, typically prescribed by pain management specialists, primary care physicians, or surgeons. Muscle relaxants address musculoskeletal conditions. A psychiatrist has no clinical reason to be prescribing either. Benzodiazepines fit the specialty. The rest dosent.

The settlement: $455,439.26 to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act and the civil provisions of the Controlled Substances Act. No criminal conviction. No prison time. But nearly half a million dollars in financial consequences for prescribing patterns that included medications outside his specialty to patients showing red flags of abuse.

Surrendered DEA Registrations and the Five-Year Prohibition

Dr. Steven Shifreen, Physician Assistant Christopher Norval, and Multicare Musculoskeletal Medicine and Pain Management Associates entered into a civil settlement with the federal government. They paid $300,000 to resolve allegations that they violated the civil provisions of the Controlled Substances Act.

On March 10, 2023, both Shifreen and Norval voluntarily surrendered there DEA registrations to prescribe controlled substances. As part of the settlement, they agreed not to re-apply for DEA registration numbers for a period of five years.

Heres what that means practically:

• Civil settlement – no criminal conviction
• No prison
• But for five years, neither of them can prescribe any controlled substances

The settlement amount – $300,000 – is significant but manageable for a medical practice. The five-year prohibition on controlled substance prescribing is career-defining.

The voluntary surrender happened before the settlement was finalized. They gave up there DEA registrations in March 2023. The settlement was announced in October 2024. The surrender wasnt a response to conviction or even to formal charges. It was part of the resolution process – an acknowledgment that surrendering prescribing authority was preferable to continuing litigation.

CPMRS Sees 39 States

Connecticuts prescription monitoring system – CPMRS, the Connecticut Prescription Monitoring and Reporting System – has interstate data sharing capabilities that extend far beyond Connecticuts borders. Authorized users currently have access to prescription data from 39 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the Military Health System.

Thirty-nine states. If a patient gets prescriptions in Connecticut and then gets more prescriptions in any of 39 other states, that pattern is visible in the CPMRS system. The interstate data sharing means doctor shopping that crosses state lines is detectable. The borders that used to limit prescription monitoring dont limit it anymore.

Law enforcement access to CPMRS requires an active investigation and either a subpoena or court order. Training is required for law enforcement personnel before they can use the system. These arent open databases that anyone can query. But once investigation begins and legal process is obtained, the data that investigators can access includes prescribing patterns from most of the country.

New Haven County sold the most opioid pills per capita of all eight Connecticut counties – averaging 31 pills per person per year between 2006 and 2019. The prescription pill distribution peaked in 2012 and has been declining since. But the historical data remains in the system. The patterns that existed during peak prescribing years are documented and accessible.

Overdoses Exceed Car Crashes

Connecticut residents are more likely to die from unintentional drug overdose then from a motor vehicle crash. That comparison helps frame the enforcement environment. Car accidents kill people every year. Drug overdoses kill more.

The 2023 Connecticut age-adjusted rate for unintentional drug-induced mortality was 33.3 per 100,000 population. The national rate was 29.1. Connecticut exceeds the national average by 14%. In 2020, there were 1,378 opioid overdose deaths in Connecticut – an increase of 14.6% from 2019.

Fentanyl dominates the overdose statistics. In 2022, 85.4% of confirmed fatal overdoses involved fentanyl. Nearly nine out of ten overdose deaths involve the synthetic opioid that has transformed the drug crisis from a prescription problem into a street drug catastrophe.

The annual number of opioid-associated overdose deaths in Connecticut has quadrupled since 2010. Whatever Connecticut was doing to address opioid prescribing in 2010, the death rate has increased four-fold since then. That trend line shapes the enforcement environment. Prosecutors, DEA agents, and medical boards all see those numbers.

What Actually Protects Connecticut Practitioners

If your prescribing controlled substances in Connecticut, your operating in a state were a doctor tried to hire a hitman while on bond, another doctor ranked 8th in the state above hospitals, and $200 bought prescriptions with minimal examination. What actualy protects you?

First: Understanding that obstruction compounds exposure catastrophically. Braylovsky went from drug charges to drug charges plus attempted murder-for-hire. His response to investigation created additional criminal liability that dwarfed the original charges. Cooperation with counsel – not witness elimination – is the only rational response to federal investigation.

Second: Prescribing volume that exceeds institutional providers triggers automatic scrutiny. Katsetos prescribed more controlled substances then most hospitals. That visibility made his practice an obvious target. If your prescribing volume appears on lists next to hospitals and health systems, your on lists that investigators review.

Third: Cash payments for prescriptions without corresponding medical examination defines illegal distribution. Ciancimino’s $200 visits with “little to no medical examination” werent medical care. The undercover documentation proved it. If payments flow and prescriptions flow but medical examinations dont, the relationship between payment and prescription becomes the prosecution theory.

Fourth: Specialty-drug mismatches create automatic questions. Syed was a psychiatrist prescribing the holy trinity including opioids and muscle relaxants. Those medications dont fit the specialty. When what your prescribing dosent match what your specialty treats, the mismatch becomes evidence.

Fifth: Civil settlements can include prescribing prohibitions. The Berlin practice paid $300,000 and accepted a five-year ban on reapplying for DEA registration. No conviction. No prison. But no controlled substance prescribing for five years. Civil resolution dosent mean consequence-free resolution.

Sixth: CPMRS shares data with 39 states. Interstate doctor shopping is visible in ways it wasnt before. Patients who get prescriptions in Connecticut and neighboring states show up in the system. The geographic boundaries that used to fragment prescription monitoring data have largely disappeared.

Seventh: Immediate counsel upon any federal contact. Braylovsky’s hitman meeting happened while he was represented by counsel on the underlying charges. That counsel presumably advised against obstruction. Braylovsky ignored that advice. The result was an additional arrest and detention that lasted through trial and sentencing. Legal strategy only works when defendants follow it.

Thats the reality of prescribing controlled substances in Connecticut in 2025. A doctor who tried to hire a hitman. A prescriber who ranked above hospitals. $200 prescriptions with minimal examination. A psychiatrist prescribing the holy trinity. And a prescription monitoring system that sees 39 states worth of data. The enforcement infrastructure is operational, the data integration is extensive, and the outcomes range from civil settlement with prescribing prohibition to 90 months in federal prison.