Rosenfield and Taylor, Pill Mill Scheme, Georgia 2023

A shocking case of medical malfeasance has come to a close in a Georgia courtroom, where a doctor and a clinic owner were sentenced for their roles in a pill mill scheme.

Jonathan Rosenfield, M.D., 40, of Atlanta, and Elmer Taylor, 44, of Houston, were sentenced to 10 and 12 years in prison, respectively, following their guilty pleas to conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances.

The scheme, which spanned from May 2018 to August 2019, saw Rosenfield and Taylor issuing prescriptions for opioids, including approximately 752,000 pills of oxycodone and 419,000 pills of hydrocodone, under Rosenfield’s name, outside the usual course of professional practice, and not for a legitimate medical purpose.

The prescriptions often were issued to individuals paid by drug dealers to pose as patients, and the pills ultimately were diverted to the illegal market. From May 2018 to August 2019, the Sunnyside Medical clinics grossed approximately $5,478,000 from the sale of these prescription drugs.

Co-defendants Sokari “Momma” Bobmanuel and Alantha Stewart were previously sentenced to 14 years and 10 years in prison, respectively, for their roles in the scheme.

The DEA Houston Division and FBI Houston Field Office investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Monica Cooper, Ariel Glasner, and Courtney Chester of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Emily Petro, formerly of the Fraud Section and currently an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division’s efforts to combat health care fraud through the Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, which has charged over 5,000 defendants who collectively have billed federal health care programs and private insurers over $24.7 billion since March 2007.

Rosenfield, a physician at the two Sunnyside Medical pill-mill clinics, and Taylor, co-owner and co-operator of the clinics, were brought to justice for their roles in the scheme, serving as a warning to others who would seek to exploit the medical system for financial gain.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/doctor-and-clinic-owner-sentenced-5m-pill-mill-scheme