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Medical clinic owner charged
CHARLESTON -- The owner of a medical clinic in southern Wayne County was charged Friday in an illegal prescription drug scheme.
Cameron J. Justice, 30, of Crum is charged with conspiracy to misuse a registration number, health care fraud and aiding and abetting from 2005 through March 2009 at Justice Medical Complex, located in Crum near the border of Wayne and Mingo counties.
The charges claim Justice defrauded Medicare out of more than $289,000.
The investigation into the clinic and its practices already had led to charges against two doctors.
Charges were filed last week against Dr. Augusto T. Abad of Charleston. He faces conspiracy to misuse a Drug Enforcement Administration number and health care fraud by aiding and abetting.
Dr. John Theodore Tiano pleaded guilty in December 2009 to the same charges and is awaiting sentencing in March, when he faces 14 years in prison and/or a $500,000 fine.
All three are accused of allowing nurse practitioners at the clinic to use the doctors' Drug Enforcement Administration numbers. The DEA numbers were used to secure payment from Medicare as part of a scheme to prescribe pain medication to patients never seen by the physician, according to court records.
The March 2009 date listed in the charges against Justice corresponds to the time federal agents executed search warrants targeting the clinic and its neighboring Sav-Rite pharmacies. Affidavits alleged both companies conspired to distribute massive amounts of pain medication illegally.
The operation attracted customers from near and far, allowing Sav-Rite to purchase more of the pain killer hydrocodone for distribution than all but 21 retail pharmacies in the nation during 2006, according to court affidavits.
Federal prosecutors allege, as part of the scheme, Abad helped in defrauding Medicare of $110,959.49 for drugs ostensibly prescribed by a doctor but not actually prescribed by a physician. Drugs linked to Abad were hydrocodone, alprazalom and phentermine.
Prosecutors filed the Justice and Abad charges in the form of an information, a method that typically indicates the defendant is cooperating with prosecutors. It allows both sides to bypass a grand jury indictment to resolve the case. They also face 14 years of prison and up to a $500,000 fine.
