Thomas F. Kirwin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of
Florida announced that Dr. Robert L. Ignasiak, Jr. was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Lacey A. Collier to 292 months in prison, and fined $1,000,000.00.

In addition, he was ordered to pay a $4,300.00 Special Monetary Assessment. Ignasiak must serve a term of 3 years of supervised release after his incarceration.

Ignasiak was found guilty on November 3, 2008, of 43 charges including: health care fraud; dispensing controlled substances, including fentanyl, hydrocodone, diazepam, chlonazepam, morphine, and alprazolam, the use of which resulted in the death of two persons; and unlawfully dispensing controlled substances including oxycodone, morphine, fentanyl, hydrocodone, alprazolam, diazepam, clonazepam, and carisoprodol.

The guilty verdict followed nineteen days of trial, during which jurors heard evidence that Dr. Ignasiak, a licensed physician, who owned and operated “Freeport Medical Clinic,” prescribed controlled substances to patients in quantities and dosages that would cause patients to abuse and misuse the substances without determining a sufficient medical necessity for the prescription of these substances.

The government presented evidence that Dr. Ignasiak prescribed controlled substances to patients knowing the patients were addicted to the substances, misusing the substances, or were "doctor shopping," and were requesting additional quantities of controlled substances for their drug habits. The use of controlled substances dispensed by Dr. Ignasiak resulted in the deaths of two patients.

Evidence at trial illustrated that Dr. Ignasiak attracted patients from across the Southeastern