Ex-Miss Russia charged with forging prescription on doctor’s stolen pad at NYC pharmacy

NY prosecutors: Ex-Miss Russia forged prescription

NEW YORK — A former Miss Russia was charged Wednesday with forging a prescription for painkillers on a pad stolen from her psychiatrist’s office.

Anna Malova was arrested Tuesday afternoon by the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement at a Manhattan pharmacy after she filled a prescription for 85 pills of the painkiller Vicodin, prosecutors said. A pharmacist there said she had come in with a similar prescription on April 10 and bought painkillers.

Authorities were notified by Malova’s doctor, who reported the prescription pad stolen from her office shortly after Malova left there Feb. 24. They told pharmacies in the area to be on the lookout.

Malova was wearing a black, fur-lined jacket and jeans and carried a Burberry plaid umbrella when she was arrested.

“I don’t know what happened,” she told a reporter for the Fox 5 News television show, which had been tipped off to the arrest and was waiting for her when she left the pharmacy.

Malova, 38, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance, forgery and criminal possession of stolen property. She didn’t enter a plea.

A lawyer who has represented Malova in the past declined to comment Wednesday. Malova was being held pending bail and is due back in court Monday.

Malova has pleaded not guilty in a similar case in which she was accused of stealing a prescription pad from another doctor — a psychiatrist who specializes in addiction — and using it to fill a prescription for 90 Vicodin pills. Prosecutors said she was caught on surveillance cameras at the pharmacy. She’s due back in court on that case July 13.

Malova, a tall blonde with a wide smile, was Miss Russia in 1998 and once finished in the Top 10 in the Miss Universe pageant. She had been living in New York and was a physician in her native county though not licensed to practice medicine in the U.S., according to her statements at the 1998 pageant.

Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to this report.