KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On Monday Clyde Christopher Tipton, 63, from Tazewell was sentenced to 50 months in prison.
Tipton was the final defendant to be sentenced in a large pill mill case that resulted in the federal criminal convictions of 140 people, according to the United States Department of Justice.
After Tipton serves his sentence, he will be on supervised release for three years, the department said.
In 2020, four people were found guilty at trial for their roles in operating or using pill mills to distribute opioids. Their identities, according to the release, are available below.
- Sylvia Hofstetter, 60, of Miami, Florida
- Cynthia Clemons, 52, of Knoxville, Tennessee
- Courtney Newman, 48, of Knoxville, Tennessee
- Holli Womack, 51, of Knoxville, Tennessee
The release also said three co-defendants previously pleaded guilty to counts involved in the indictment and have already been sentenced for helping operate pill mills in Tennessee and Florida. Those three co-defendants' identities are available below.
- Luigi “Jimmy” Palma, 61, of Miami, Florida
- Luca Sartini, 64, also of Miami, Florida
- Benjamin Rodriguez, 49, of Delray, Florida
Luca Sartini and Luigi Palma can be seen below.
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As part of a plea agreement with the court, Tipton pleaded guilty to the following:
- Conspiracy to launder money
- Conspiracy to defraud the United States and pay healthcare kickbacks
According to the DOJ, Tipton's agreement as well as the evidence presented at other trials established that the pill mill owned and operated by Tipton and "various co-defendants" distributed over 11 million tablets of oxycodone, oxymorphone and morphine that generated over $21 million with a corresponding street value of $360 million, the DOJ said.
"The conspiracy involved four separate clinics in or near Knoxville, Tennessee, each of which was a pill mill," the department said. "A pill mill owned by Sartini, Palma, and Rodriguez, operating in Hollywood, Florida, gave rise to the Tennessee pill mills."
The DOJ said according to evidence, people involved in the pill mill scheme planned to move to East Tennessee as law enforcement shut down hundreds of pill mills in South Florida. The release said East Tennessee was where "a large percentage of these clinics’ opioid-addicted customers lived."
"The three tabbed Hofstetter to run the Tennessee pill mills. She and Tipton later opened competing pill mills in Knoxville," the department said.
According to the department, Palma and Sartini were sentenced in December to 120 months in prison and 130 months in prison, respectively. Rodriguez was sentenced in January to 65 months in prison.