KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Two men extradited from Italy have pleaded guilty to racketeering charges and face sentencing after admitting they backed and profited from East Tennessee "pain clinics" that prescribed narcotics not needed for medical purposes.
Luca Sartini and Luigi Palma are to be sentenced May 25 by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Varlan in Knoxville.
Court records show authorities will be recommending 144-month prison terms for each man. They'll also have to forfeit various bank accounts containing tens of thousands of dollars in cash, and after they get out of prison they'll each face supervised release of up to three years.
They pleaded guilty to the racketeering, or RICO, charges in November, records state.
Plea agreements state Sartini and Palma were among a handful of people who owned and operated the Urgent Care and Surgery Center Enterprise, which operated pain clinics in Florida and Tennessee. The plea agreement says "in reality, those pain clinics were pill mills, where powerful narcotics were prescribed and/or dispensed outside the scope of professional practice."
During the federal investigation, the pair were often referred to as "the Italians."
Documents show Sartini, Palma and others would travel to and from distant locations to illegally get controlled substances. It also said they were aware patients would sell, distribute, or abuse the narcotics.
Providers at the clinics would also prescribe "massive quantities of opioids and other controlled substances to thousands of purposed pain patients in exchange for grossly excessive fees," according to the plea agreement. They also said the clinics generally did not accept insurance.
The clinics later started requiring patients to keep follow-up appointments every 28 days to continue receiving prescriptions, the plea agreement said.
In early 2011, the men helped start up the first Knoxville clinic on Gallaher View Road, according to the documents.
They later opened a pain clinic in Lenoir City under the name "Urgent Care and Surgery Center," which was later renamed "Comprehensive Healthcare Systems."
Each clinic charged $300 or more per visit and did not accept health insurance, according to the plea agreement. In 2013, the Knoxville clinic closed "because its landlord would not renew the lease due to the negative attention the clinic attracted."
So, Knoxville customers were sent to Lenoir City, according to the plea agreement. However, documents say some of the men opened another Knoxville clinic named "East Knoxville Health Services."
The lawsuit said the second Knoxville clinic was operated in secret from Sartini.
The Lenoir City Clinic and the Knoxville clinic were raided in March 2015 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, leading to their closure. They said between 2011 and 2014, the clinics generated around $21 million in revenue.
The plea agreement said Sartini received around $2,237,000 from his ownership of the clinics. Palma netted some $2.4 million, federal authorities say. He'll have to pay that back.
The men weren't involved in the day-to-day operations of the Tennessee clinics but traveled occasionally to visit them with others.
Their co-defendant and co-conspirator Sylvia Hofstetter moved from Florida to East Tennessee to oversee operation of the pill mills. She was convicted in February 2020, and Varlan sentenced her to 33 years in prison.
Records state Sartini and Palma may need to pay restitution for losses in the Medicare and TennCare systems.
Sartini also forfeited the real estate of the Lenoir City clinic and will need to pay $2,237,000.