GOVERNMENT WANTS $1 MILLION FROM E. KY. 'PILL FACTORY'

Paintsville Doctors Could Get 20 Years In Prescription Case

PAINTSVILLE -- If it can convict two doctors alleged to have operated a
"pill factory" in Eastern Kentucky, the government also plans to make the
pair forfeit all the money they made in the business.

The amount, $1 million, represents the gross proceeds that Dr. Frederick
Cohn and Dr. Yakov Drabovskiy took in while allegedly illegally dispensing
more than 5 million doses of prescription drugs, according to an 18-count
federal indictment.

Cohn, 69, of Albuquerque, N.M., and Drabovskiy, 52, of Lowmansville were
indicted yesterday in U.S. District Court in London on charges they
conspired to dispense controlled substances without a legitimate medical
purpose and executed a scheme to defraud Medicaid.

If convicted, each also faces up to 20 years in prison and additional $1
million fines.

The two doctors operated a pain clinic in Paintsville for about a year
before both were arrested during an Aug. 2 raid. After spending four days
in jail, however, both were ordered released on separate $25,000 cash bonds
by U.S. Magistrate J.B. Johnson Jr., despite warnings from prosecutors that
both posed flight risks.

Johnson allowed Cohn to return to Albuquerque, although Assistant U.S.
Attorney Roger West told the magistrate that would enable Cohn to flee to
Mexico.

But West said yesterday that Cohn had not fled the country. "If he does
run, he's got a $25,000 bond posted," West said, "and we'll move to forfeit
his bond."

Cohn was at his home in Albuquerque yesterday but said his attorneys had
told him not to answer any questions.

Regena Triplett of Pikeville, one of Cohn's attorneys, could not be reached
for comment.

Johnson limited Drabovskiy, a Russian national without a passport, to the
federal court system's eastern district of Kentucky.

In Paintsville, investigators described Cohn's office as a pill factory
that treated up to 158 patients a day, charging between $100 and $65 for
examinations that took an average of about 3 minutes each.

Between November 1999 and Aug. 2, the doctors handed out prescriptions for
40,000 Tylenol No. 3, Percocet, Oxycodone and Tylox tablets, 3,780,000
hydrocodone tablets, and 1.5 million Xanax, Valium and Darvocet tablets,
the indictment said.

Cohn's medical license in Kentucky has been suspended, but Johnson
indicated he would allow both Cohn -- who still is licensed in other states
- -- and Drabovskiy to practice medicine for state agencies, such as prisons.

Before he opened an office in Johnson County in August 2000, Cohn had
practiced in Greenup County since November 1999, official said. He moved to
Paintsville at about the same time a doctor with whom he practiced in South
Shore surrendered his license, state records show.