Dublin Attorney Charged with Conspiracy, Money Laundering for Involvement with Alleged Pill Mills
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 17, 2013 |
CINCINNATI—A federal grand jury has indicted Steven E. Hillman, 67, of Dublin, Ohio, alleging that he conspired with the owner of three pain clinics in Ohio to illegally divert prescription drugs outside the scope of legitimate medical practice and launder proceeds of the conspiracy.
Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Robert L. Corso, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration, Detroit Field Division; and Edward J. Hanko, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced the charges contained in a superseding indictment on Wednesday, January 16, 2013.
The indictment alleges that Hillman conspired with Tracy Bias, 47, of West Portsmouth, Ohio, in an attempt to open Physicians Pharmacy in Piketon, Ohio, in order to service prescriptions for illegal distribution of controlled substances issued by the pain clinics owned and controlled by Bias and others. The indictment charges that Hillman helped Bias launder $132,920 in cash from the activities of the conspiracy in July 2010.
Bias and six doctors were initially indicted in April 2012 in a 12-count indictment alleging that they operated three pill mills in southern Ohio between January 2009 and June 2011: Southern Ohio Complete Pain Management and Portsmouth Medical Solutions in Portsmouth and Trinity Medical Care in Columbus, Ohio.
Customers allegedly traveled hundreds of miles to the clinics in central and southern Ohio where, for a cash payment of approximately $200 per office visit and with little or no physical examination, clinic customers would receive excessive amounts of “cocktails” of controlled substances including diazepam, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and alprazalam.
Hillman is scheduled to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie K. Bowman in Cincinnati on Thursday, January 24, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. for an initial appearance and arraignment on the charges.
Conspiracy to distribute drugs outside the scope of legitimate medical practice and money laundering are each punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Stewart commended the cooperative investigation by agents and officers of the agencies named above, as well as Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Oakley, who is prosecuting the case.
An indictment is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendants are entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.