A Boca Raton man arrested last week on accusations he was running a pill mill in Maryland may be the vice president of a Deerfield Beach clinic that was raided by the DEA last year.
Gerald Wiseberg is a 78-year-old from Boca Raton resident currently free on bail outside of Baltimore. He was arrested as part of a Drug Enforcement Administration investigation into a Maryland clinic he was running with a Brooklyn couple -- authorities say they were running a pill mill that dished oxycodone to upward of 120 patients a day.
And it looks like this wasn't Wiseberg's first venture into the painkiller business.
A Deerfield Beach pain clinic called Total Care Medical Center was raided by DEA officials last year -- neighboring businesses reported the clinic attracted loiterers with plates from Kentucky, Georgia, and Tennessee, hallmarks of the South Florida pill-mill business. And according to state records, the president at the time was named Gerald Wiseberg. A lawyer listed in company records said it sounded like the same Wiseberg but couldn't confirm it.
The Deerfield Beach raid happened in February 2011; the DEA reports it was monitoring the Baltimore County clinic starting in April 2011, though it's not clear if Wiseberg was involved from the beginning. A South Florida DEA spokeswoman said she couldn't confirm whether the investigation into the Deerfield Beach clinic was ongoing, but no charges are on record against Wiseberg. He is still listed as vice president of the company in state documents.
As for the Deerfield Beach clinic itself, it's still open for business -- a woman answering the phone said "everything's fine" but said to call back to speak with a manager. I'll keep trying.
There are several other businesses registered in South Florida that list a "Gerald Wiseberg" as a principal, including several that have addresses that match the one on file in Baltimore.
There's the Gaps Funding Corp., founded in 1999 with Wiseberg, and the USA Loan Corp., which lists Wiseberg and the rest of the Gaps Funding individuals on an annual report filed in 1999.
A company called the American Assistance Foundation was founded in 2002 with Wiseberg listed on the board of directors. It was granted nonprofit status under the category for "alcohol, drug and substance abuse, dependency prevention and treatment," but its tax-exempt status was revoked when the company failed to file any of the required tax forms. The company last filed forms with the state in 2006.
In 2010, Wiseberg registered the Loring Group, and Diversified Corporate Investments was founded in February and registered to Wiseberg's Boca Raton address.
What all of this means is still unclear, but there's plenty to be unknotted in the South Florida dealings of this accused Maryland pill-pusher.
