{Lexington, Kentucky}...Thursday, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove in Lexington sentenced 48 year old Michael Leman of Slidell, Louisiana, the owner of Urgent Care Services in Cincinnati and Philadelphia, to 15 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay $1 million in restitution to two Kentucky agencies. In March, a jury convicted Leman and the clinics of conspiring with several of his employees to prescribe Methadone and Oxycodone to bogus patients and ordered Leman to forfeit $825,000 as the profits of the scheme. From 2004 to 2008, authorities say, runners would travel five to 16 hours from Kentucky to clinics in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio to pick up prescriptions for drugs, keep half the prescription for themselves and sell the rest in places such as Pike and Floyd counties. Evidence and testimony at the trial showed that about 90 percent of patients who visited the Pennsylvania and Cincinnati clinics were from eastern Kentucky. Van Tatenhove fined his two pain clinic businesses $50,000. The clinics made a combined $1.2 million in cash over a 26-month period.Thursday, August 2, 2012
Louisiana Businessman Sentenced
{Lexington, Kentucky}...Thursday, U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove in Lexington sentenced 48 year old Michael Leman of Slidell, Louisiana, the owner of Urgent Care Services in Cincinnati and Philadelphia, to 15 years in federal prison and ordered him to pay $1 million in restitution to two Kentucky agencies. In March, a jury convicted Leman and the clinics of conspiring with several of his employees to prescribe Methadone and Oxycodone to bogus patients and ordered Leman to forfeit $825,000 as the profits of the scheme. From 2004 to 2008, authorities say, runners would travel five to 16 hours from Kentucky to clinics in Louisiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio to pick up prescriptions for drugs, keep half the prescription for themselves and sell the rest in places such as Pike and Floyd counties. Evidence and testimony at the trial showed that about 90 percent of patients who visited the Pennsylvania and Cincinnati clinics were from eastern Kentucky. Van Tatenhove fined his two pain clinic businesses $50,000. The clinics made a combined $1.2 million in cash over a 26-month period.