Casper Woman On Probation For Prescription Drug Conspiracy Is Arrested
Lyn Kahn, a defendant along with her husband Dr. Shakeel Kahn in a multi-state prescription drug conspiracy, was arrested Thursday, according to Natrona County and Wyoming authorities.
Lyn Kahn, 45, was booked into the Natrona County Detention Center on a contract hold at 5:07 p.m. Thursday, according to the jail roster.
According to a statement from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Lyn Kahn was arrested on a federal warrant for allegedly violating a provision of the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA),
She allegedly disclosed individually identifiable health information. The DCI statement did not provide any details about the arrest or the circumstances leading to it.
Federal court records on Friday did not indicate when Lyn Kahn may appear for a hearing on the arrest. The earliest time she could appear in federal court would be Monday.
It is unknown how this alleged HIPAA violation may affect her probation in the larger drug case.
The complex case started more than a year ago when the Wyoming State Board of Pharmacy asked the DEA to investigate Kahn, who was issuing large prescriptions for controlled substances under two DEA licenses in Arizona and Wyoming. The Arizona and Wyoming boards of medicine subsequently suspended Kahn's medical licenses for prescribing controlled substances outside the standard of care.
Shakeel and Lyn Kahn dealt with customers who paid them $500 in cash for a prescription and a written promise to not call him a "drug dealer." Customers often would resell the drugs.
On Nov. 30, Shakeel and Lyn Kahn were arrested at their house on Thorndike Avenue in Casper, and initially charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.
In January, a federal grand jury indicted the Kahns and Paul Beland on 21 counts of drug-related crimes. If convicted on all counts, they face up to 20 years imprisonment. Shakeel Kahn also was charged with running a criminal enterprise. If convicted on that count alone, he faces between 20 years and life imprisonment.
Two weeks ago, the federal grand jury handed up a superceding indictment alleging Shakeel and his brother, Nabeel Khan, possessed or used firearms during the commission of a federal drug-trafficking crime. Those crimes are punishable by either a five-year or a seven-year sentence consecutive to other sentences.
Shakeel Kahn, Nabeel Khan Beland remain in custody awaiting trial set for Oct. 2.
Lyn Kahn has been out on bond.
Five months ago, Shakeel and Lyn Kahn violated the terms of their probation by contacting potential witnesses in the case in January. U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl ordered Shakeel Kahn detained.
However, Skavdahl reluctantly agreed to release Lyn Kahn because unlike Shakeel, she doesn't have ties to Canada nor was her conduct as egregious as his.
But the judge ordered her to not to talk to her relatives about the case, and to not commit any crimes while out on bond.