South Florida man ran $15M pill mill that supplied Kentucky drug dealers, feds say

June 05--The owner of a South Florida pain clinic is facing criminal charges -- accused of running a $15 million pill mill operation that supplied oxycodone to drug dealers and addicts in other states.

Joel Shumrak, 66, of Boca Raton, was arrested Tuesday after federal agents raided his Broken Sound home and his Fort Lauderdale business, Pain Center of Broward on the 5400 block of North Federal Highway.

"The amount of money from the pain clinic is, frankly, staggering -- $15 million," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brent Tantillo said during a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

Prosecutors said the South Florida-based drug conspiracy involved more than one million pills and supplied about 25 percent of all of the oxycodone distributed in the eastern district of Kentucky.

A judge ordered Shumrak detained without bond and he is being held at the Broward County Jail. He will remain in custody while he is transferred to Kentucky to face the federal indictment, which was filed there.

Agents seized about $4 million on Tuesday, as well as vehicles and other assets that belong to Shumrak and his wife, a science teacher who works for the Broward County schools district, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors argued that Shumrak was a flight risk and a danger to the community, telling the judge that he has access to some $15 million, including money they said was kept in offshore accounts on the Mediterranean island Republic of Cyprus and the Caribbean island Nevis.

Shumrak is a well-known businessman who often served as an informal spokesman for South Florida's pain management community. He always said that he was operating legally and criticized doctors in other states who he said were unwilling to appropriately treat chronic pain.

For many years, South Florida became notorious as a destination for addicts and drug dealers who drove hundreds of miles from Appalachia, lured by ads and billboards that urged them to take advantage of the region's formerly lax controls on prescription painkillers.

Law enforcement, drug dealers and addicts began calling the well-traveled route to South Florida the Oxy Express or the Oxy Highway.

Shumrak, who wore dark blue jail scrubs with his hands cuffed to a chain around his waist, did not speak in court.

Shumrak's lawyer, Bernard Cassidy, said his client will vigorously defend himself against the allegations, emphasizing that the Fort Lauderdale business was licensed and inspected by the state.

"Joel was a licensed business owner and we intend to fight the charges," Cassidy said.

In court, Cassidy told U.S. Magistrate Judge Alicia Valle that Shumrak has known since 2011 that he was under investigation, but never fled because has done nothing wrong.

If convicted of the drug distribution and money-laundering conspiracy charges, he could face more than 20 years in federal prison. Investigators said Shumrak operated the conspiracy, with a Georgia-based doctor, between June 2008 and May of this year when the grand jury indictment was issued.

Prosecutors said in court that investigators secretly recorded Shumrak talking about fleeing to avoid prosecution. They said that Drug Enforcement Administration agents from Kentucky and South Florida also gathered evidence that Shumrak was photocopying his financial and patient records so that he could continue to commit crimes at a different location.

Cassidy told the judge that there was nothing "nefarious" about Shumrak's copying of records and that Cassidy had instructed him to make copies to use in his defense.

"Mr. Shumrak does joke around and tends to say things like he will flee," Cassidy told the judge.

He said that Shumrak has strong ties to the South Florida community and would never abandon his wife, adult children and two young grandchildren. He also has diabetes, hypertension, suffered a seizure a few years ago and is taking about 10 prescription medications, Cassidy said.

"His clinic has closed down since the raid yesterday," Cassidy said in court. "He's a 66-year-old man in bad health. I don't think he represents a threat to anyone."

Cassidy also said in court that it was misleading to suggest that Shumrak was hiding money offshore. He said that Shumrak used "strategic tax shelters' to operate some of his insurance businesses overseas, but most of the money remained in the U.S.

Community activists, who have picketed Shumrak's business many times over the years and blame him and his employees for the drug-related deaths of at least two people, said they were delighted and relieved to hear of his arrest.

"I hope and pray they've got him this time," said Janet Colbert, a Broward county resident and nurse who was one of the founders of STOPP Now (Stop the Organized Pill Pushers Now). "He's very cocky, with his security guard carrying a Glock in the parking lot when we picket."

"I think the tide is turning and hopefully eventually we won't have this problem any more -- law enforcement has done a lot in recent years to shut this problem down," Colbert said.

In court, prosecutors referred to Shumrak's wife and adult children as alleged co-conspirators though none of them have been criminally charged in the case. Court records name Shumrak's wife Amy, and some other family members, as joint holders or signatories on some of the bank accounts that investigators allege were linked to the money-laundering conspiracy charge against Joel Shumrak.

Amy Shumrak attended the court hearing with her adult son but neither of them spoke. She teaches science at Lyons Creek Middle School in Coconut Creek, school district officials confirmed on Wednesday.

pmcmahon@tribune.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula

___

(c)2014 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)

Visit the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) at www.sun-sentinel.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services