A group of “pill mill” owners and operators have been sentenced to prison, federal officials said Friday.
Brothers Larry Webman, 68, and Randy Webman, 62, were sentenced to 10 years and 11 years in prison, respectively, for operating a pain clinic illegally.
Randy Webman’s 31-year-old daughter, Dara Webman, was sentenced to prison for a year and a half for illegally distributing drugs by mail.
Larry Webman, who pleaded guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy and engaging in a money-laundering conspiracy, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and a $100,000 fine.
A federal grand jury handed down indictments in January 2013, after the brothers instructed Dr. George Williams to write prescriptions for controlled substances such as oxycodone, a highly addictive painkiller.
Williams, 48, of Duluth, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy and was sentenced to seven years in prison, and five years of supervised release. He also agreed to forfeit his Georgia physician’s license.
George Borbas, 54, Raleigh, N.C., and Liz Gaitan, 29, of Lawrenceville, were sentenced for illegally selling and distributing prescriptions for opiate-based narcotics and other controlled substances to addicts and drug dealers under the guise of a Lilburn pain clinic.
Borbas was a patient and recruiter for the clinic, while Gaitan was an employee.
U.S. Attorney John Horn said abuse of prescription drugs in Georgia has led to record levels of overdoses and addiction as well as a disturbing resurgence in heroin use by people who transition from abusing prescription pain killers to using heroin.
“Larry, Randy, and Dara Webman came to Georgia for the sole purpose of profiting from the illicit prescribing of prescription narcotics to addicts and drug dealers, without regard to the safety and well-being of our community,” Horn said in an emailed statement. “Once here, they employed the services of an unscrupulous doctor and an employee with no medical training to issue bogus prescriptions for painkillers.”
Dara Webman worked at the clinic as an office manager, handing out prescriptions for narcotic opiates to customers in exchange for cash payments ostensibly collected for office visits, police said.
The clinic saw as many as 60 customers a day, each paying between $250 and $350 a visit. The clinic’s customers regularly traveled long distances to obtain prescriptions for controlled substances, the authorities said. Most hailed from outside the state, including North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, South Carolina and Florida.
Federal officials said Williams saw a customer only at the initial visit, at which time he conducted a brief examination.
When customers made return visits, they rarely saw the clinic’s physicians, but instead obtained additional prescriptions for controlled substances based solely upon an exam by Gaitan, who had no medical authority to do so. On at least one occasion, Dara Webman mailed opiate prescriptions to undercover officers posing as customers.
Borbas, the patient and recruiter for the clinic, sponsored the visits of numerous customers to the clinic in exchange for receiving a portion of the prescription pills the customers were ultimately prescribed. Almost all customers paid cash, authorities said.
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