ST. LOUIS — The owner of 'Doctors on the Go' was sentenced to prison on Friday.
Denis Mikhlin was sentenced to nine years in prison and ordered to pay restitution for fraud and receiving kickbacks.
In August 2020, the 41-year-old from St. Louis County pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, obtaining oxycodone and other opioid drugs by fraud and deceit.
Prosecutors say he received illegal kickbacks in return for sending urine specimens to Central Diagnostic Laboratory for unnecessary testing. This caused Medicare and Medicaid programs to pay more than $4.7 million for medically unnecessary prescription drugs and drug tests.
According to court documents, Mikhlin conspired with Dr. Jerry Leech and others to issue and distribute illegal prescriptions for opioids and other controlled substances to patients.
Mikhlin also recruited individuals and paid them for the use of their names on the fraudulent prescriptions.
Once the prescriptions were filled, some of the drugs were returned to Mikhlin and the rest were kept by the individuals or sold to others.
To hide the illegal activity, court documents say Mikhlin and others created patient files, which falsely indicated that the patients had been examined by the prescribing doctors and the patients were regularly monitored and tested.
Earlier this week, Leech pleaded guilty to four felony counts for his actions related to this conspiracy and fraud scheme. His sentencing is scheduled for May 11, 2021.
Several others involved also pleaded guilty. Erin Herman, Vladimir Kogan, Ebony Price, Tijuana Spates and Erica Spates are scheduled for sentencing in May 2021.
