Doctor Sentenced to Five Years in Prison for Illegal Drug Distribution
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 08, 2012 |
PHILADELPHIA—Lewis Meyer Jacobs, M.D., 79, of Philadelphia, was sentenced today to 60 months in prison for running a pill mill out of his North Philadelphia medical practice from at least 2005 to May 2010. Jacobs pleaded guilty on September 15, 2011 to conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute and actual distribution of frequently abused controlled substances, including OxyContin and Percocets. Jacobs admitted that he sold sham prescriptions to drug dealers and addicts, paid a drug-dealing office employee in prescriptions, and also issued prescriptions to a drug-dealing paramour. He would typically charge about $50 in cash per sham prescription. Scores of customers would visit his office, often for as little as two minutes per visit. Over the years, Jacobs earned at least $1,261,000 in drug proceeds.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge J. Curtis Joyner ordered Jacobs to pay restitution to the IRS in the amount of $328,717, a $200 special assessment, to forfeit $1,261,000, and three years’ supervised release. Jacobs turned himself in immediately to begin serving his sentence.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Alexander T.H. Nguyen and Andrea G. Foulkes.