Doctor Guilty of Improper Prescription of Drugs Fined : Lancaster: He and his wife were charged with treating diet patients with a steroid-like hormone that authorities say has no effect on weight loss.

A doctor convicted of improperly prescribing controlled drugs to diet patients at a Lancaster clinic was fined $10,100 Monday and ordered to perform 2,000 hours of community service, with the judge saying the conviction may cost the doctor his medical license.

Dr. Arthur N. Goldfarb, 57, convicted on three felony counts in August, was sentenced by Lancaster Superior Court Judge Charles Peven. The judge also sentenced Goldfarb’s estranged wife, Charlotte, 51, to 2,000 hours of community service on five similar felony counts. Both received five years probation.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven D. Ogden had recommended a jail sentence for the couple, saying that they had run “a sleazy kind of medical practice” and that time behind bars would warn the medical community that illegal acts will be punished.

Peven rejected that recommendation, saying, “I think these two individuals have received the message.” Further, the judge said, officials of the Medical Board of California have said they will try to revoke Goldfarb’s medical license because of his conviction.

The Goldfarbs were charged with treating diet patients with the hormone HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, a steroid-like substance that medical authorities say has no effect on weight loss. Ogden said HCG’s legitimate purpose is to aid women in becoming pregnant.

The original charges, filed in March, 1990, alleged that more than 200 diet patients were given HCG during 1989 at the Mountain Medical Clinic in Lancaster, which also was known as the Crimson Medical Clinic, an operation run by Charlotte Goldfarb with her husband’s aid.

A jury in August convicted Goldfarb of dispensing a controlled substance, HCG, for other than a legitimate medical purpose, and of two counts of conspiracy to administer controlled substances, HCG and a trio of amphetamine-like drugs also used by the clinic.

The same jury convicted Charlotte Goldfarb on two counts of possession for sale of a controlled substance, HCG and the amphetamine-like drugs; two counts of conspiracy related to providing the same two types of substances, and one count of forging a prescription.

The case stemmed from an investigation by the state medical board. Pending action by the medical board, Goldfarb can continue to practice medicine. But Peven ordered the couple to no longer use HCG, which they maintained was a valid diet treatment.