A Silverthorne man was sentenced in federal court last week to 15 years in prison for his role in dispensing a half-million dosages of oxycodone and other pain medications to people who didn’t need them.
The patients received dosages of up to four times the safe medical limit and at least three died, prosecutors say.
Keith A. Schwartz, 47, was also ordered to serve six years on supervised release after his prison time. He was convicted following a 14-day October trial.
Schwartz was found guilty of conspiracy, distribution of a controlled substance and 36 counts of money laundering.
Colorado’s U.S. attorney’s office announced the sentence in a news release Monday.
Prosecutors say that over 18 months, Schwartz and co-conspirators, including Dr. Joseph Ferrara, ran a pill mill and then laundered the earnings through a bank account in his wife’s name, according to the release.
Federal officials say the operation began after May 2011 when Schwartz, using an alias, approached a pain doctor who was being held at a federal detention center in Englewood to purchase his patient list.
The doctor, Kevin Clemmer, was being held on charges that he unlawfully prescribed controlled substances.
Schwartz, without a medical degree, often directed Ferrara on how much medication to dispense to patients and often consulted with patients himself.
Schwartz laundered the proceeds from the patients through bank accounts in his wife’s name and used the money to help purchase his $1.6 million home out of foreclosure, according to the release.
“Schwartz’s pain clinic contributed to the death of at least three patients,” according to prosecutors.
Ferrara committed suicide more than a year ago as he was awaiting trial, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
