January 24, 2017

The government unsealed a plea agreement with the owner and operator of Columbus Southern Medical Center, which provided unlawful prescriptions of controlled substances to addicts throughout the Midwest and who engaged in a series of schemes to evade more than $3.5 million in taxes, announced the Justice Department’s Tax Division. Kevin B. Lake, 50, of New Albany, Ohio, pleaded guilty to drug, tax and fraud charges and agreed to the forfeiture of what remains from the $29 million in seized funds earned from the clinic’s illegal activities, after restitution is paid from the funds. According to court documents, Lake owned and managed Columbus Southern Medical Center through one or more corporate or trust entities which he used to insulate himself from the illegal drug trafficking being conducted at the clinic. In the filed plea document, he admitted that between 2006 and 2013, he knew doctors and staff at the 2912 South High Street clinic prescribed controlled substances to patients without a legitimate medical purpose. During that time, hundreds of patients showed up daily – 85 percent of whom were returning patients – to receive prescriptions of oxycodone, hydrocodone and Xanax. The percentage of patients who were prescribed these controlled substances rose each year, jumping from nearly 60 percent in 2004 to nearly 92 percent in 2009 and 2010. DOJ

Tagged in: Tax Fraud,