A Louisiana man who owned two out-of-state pain clinics that were responsible for illegally distributing hundreds of thousands of prescription pills to Eastern Kentuckians was found guilty by a Lexington jury on all criminal charges.
After more than three weeks of trial and approximately four hours of deliberation, the jury found 46-year-old Michael Leman and two corporations he controlled, Urgent Care Services Philadelphia Inc. and Urgent Care Services Cincinnati Inc., guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and one count of money laundering.
…Trial testimony revealed that Leman instructed clinic officials to actively recruit Kentucky patients to travel to Urgent Care in Philadelphia for prescription drugs. The two pain clinics didn’t possess X-ray machines, MRI equipment, or the ability to cast broken bones.
Evidence also proved that Leman hired three doctors to work at the clinics who were unemployed, had criminal histories, and had at one time lost their license to practice medicine in other states. He paid these doctors $3,000 a week with additional monetary incentives if the clinic’s revenue exceeded $10,000 for the week.
At Leman’s direction, the doctors were to accept cash as the only method of payment and charge Kentuckians $500 per visit, more than two and half times the amount in-state patients paid. The doctors typically wrote prescriptions for large amounts of 40 mg Methadone tablets and Oxycodone.
FBI press release link: here