Two St. Louis-area physicians and a chiropractor have been sentenced for their roles in a $4.7 million healthcare fraud and opioid prescription scheme involving Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare, the Justice Department said in an April 15 news release.
Jerry Leech, a Clayton, Mo., chiropractor described by prosecutors as “the ringmaster of the conspiracy,” was sentenced to 100 months in prison and ordered to repay $4.7 million. Mr. Leech orchestrated a scheme in which two physicians — Stanley Librach, MD, and Asim Ali, MD — wrote oxycodone prescriptions and other controlled substances for patients they had not examined and without legitimate medical purpose, while Mr. Leech actively encouraged the prescribing despite aberrant drug test results. Mr. Leech admitted responsibility for at least 94,971 oxycodone pills distributed without legitimate medical purpose.
In a separate but related scheme, urine samples were sent to a lab operated by Dr. Ali in exchange for illegal kickbacks that flowed back to entities controlled by Mr. Leech. Dr. Librach was sentenced in June 2025 to 60 months in prison and ordered to repay $2.87 million. Dr. Ali was sentenced in September 2025 to 70 months in prison and ordered to repay $1.8 million. In all, 12 defendants have pleaded guilty in the case.
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