Doctor who ran pill mill takes plea deal, five years in prison
A New Albany doctor has agreed to serve five years in prison and surrender more than $27 million in seized funds for running a South Side pill mill that prescribed more than 1 million doses of painkillers a year to addicts.
Dr. Kevin B. Lake, 50, owned and operated Columbus Southern Medical Center, which dispensed pain killers such as oxycodone to as many as 400 people a day from 2006 until it shut down in 2013 following a search by federal agents.
Lake pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to drug, tax and fraud charges. U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson ordered a pre-sentence investigation before he sentences Lake.
As for imposing a five-year sentence, Watson told Lake, "I don't know that I will do that. We'll see." Lake can withdraw his plea if Watson imposes a longer sentence.
The center, at 2900-2912 South High St., "provided unlawful prescriptions of controlled substances to addicts throughout the Midwest," U.S. Attorney Benjamin Glassman said.
Glassman said larger pill mills have been shut down in southern Ohio, but Lake's center was a significant operation for central Ohio. Columbus police narcotics detective David Allen said closing the pill mills down south sent many addicts north to Columbus Southern.
Internal Revenue Service agents seized the more than $27 million from Lake's bank, stock and treasury accounts. Along with other personal assets, the funds will cover $9 million in unpaid taxes and restitution for unearned unemployment benefits and fraudulent workers' compensation claims for patients and other government claims.
Lake had treated patients at the address since 1999. Beginning in 2006, he focused on those seeking treatment for pain "in a manner that was outside the usual course of medical practice," according to court documents.
Investigators said Lake owned, operated and kept the books for the center, which charged patients $100 for a visit and/or prescription. The visits lasted only a few minutes, not long enough for a proper consultation and examination for a prescription, according to court documents.
Lake tried to disguise his ownership by having his mother put the center in trusts for him and his son in 2004. The Lake Charitable Family Trust and Lake Charitable Lead Trust received more than $6 million from 2011 to 2013.
He also deposited millions in limited liability companies he created in the names of fellow doctors who didn't know it and through false corporations.
Three employees previously pleaded guilty in connection with the pill-mill scheme.
Patients of the center have died from drug overdoses, but Glassman said the evidence was not strong enough to connect Lake's prescriptions with the deaths.
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