US District Judge Henry E. Autrey sentenced a chiropractor, Jerry Dale Leech, 53, of Clayton, who committed healthcare fraud and issued fraudulent subscriptions for controlled substance to 100 months in prison and ordered him to repay $4.7 million to Medicaid, Medicare and Tricare. Two of his co-conspirators, Dr. Stanley L. Librach, now 65, of Chesterfield, and Dr. Asim Muhammad Ali, 55, of Creve Coeur, pleaded guilty to similar charges. All three men admitted that Dr. Ali and Dr. Librach wrote prescriptions for the powerful pain medication oxycodone and other controlled substances when there was no legitimate medical purpose and while acting outside the usual course of professional practice. As Leech knew, the doctors had not examined the patients, rarely looked at their charts, and should have known via drug tests that they were not taking the drugs that they were prescribed or were taking non-prescribed or illegal drugs. Leech actively encouraged the doctors to prescribe controlled substances despite the aberrant drug test results. He also exchanged fraudulent prescriptions to other conspirators for cash or other items of value. The conspirators knew that pharmacies would seek reimbursement for the medications from Medicare and Medicaid. Leech admitted responsibility for at least 94,971 oxycodone pills that had been distributed with no legitimate medical purpose.
In another scheme, they agreed to send urine samples for testing to a lab operated by Dr. Ali, Central Diagnostic Laboratory, in exchange for illegal kickbacks that went to business entities owned by Leech and another co-defendant, Denis J. Mikhlin. CDL then sought reimbursement from Medicare and Medicaid for the testing. CDL paid Midwest Marketing, a company run by Leech, at least $150,795 in bribes for the reimbursement CDL received from federal healthcare programs, which was at least $861,600. Eleven defendants were indicted in 2020, including three doctors, their staff and purported patients. A twelfth was added in 2022. All have pleaded guilty.