MANCHESTER, Ohio – Federal law enforcement agents are claiming a former Clermont County coroner illegally dispensed controlled substances at the Manchester Rehabilitation Center before he resigned from his position in late July.

In a complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, IRS special agent James R. Kuntz detailed an undercover federal investigation of the Manchester Rehabilitation Clinic located at 8291 U.S. 52.

The complaint seeks the forfeiture of more than $250,000 in cash and checks in addition to a 1990 Lexus sedan and boat from Dr. Nico Capurro. The cash and property were allegedly derived from the illegal sale of drugs, according to the complaint.

Kuntz stated the FBI learned in May that Capurro opened the Manchester Rehabilitation Clinic and began surveillance at the facility.

The joint investigation also utilized the help of the Jackson, Lawrence and Ross county sheriffs’ offices in southern Ohio as well as police departments within those counties.

“This investigation has revealed that Nico Capurro, a licensed medial doctor who operated the Medical Rehabilitation Center … was illegally dispensing controlled substances without following proper medical procedures,” Kuntz said in the statement.

Adams County authorities assisted the FBI in executing a search warrant at the Manchester Rehabilitation Center in June.

Several customers in the business at the time of the search warrant were arrested on outstanding warrants from surrounding counties, Adams County Sheriff’s Detective Jeff McCarty said.

The office has since been shut down.

The investigation indicates Capurro unlawfully wrote prescriptions for controlled substances throughout southern Ohio in the operation of “pain clinics” from about January 2001 to the present time, according to Kuntz.

“As one ‘pain clinic’ would close, a new one would open in a nearby Ohio town or county. Each ‘pain clinic’ location operated/attended by Dr. Nico Capurro was in business for approximately six months. These ‘pain clinics’ were located in ‘strip malls,’ closed restaurants and other facilities of a commercial nature,” Kuntz stated in the federal complaint.

He said local law enforcement officials were overwhelmed by complaints from people who lived near each of the “pain clinics” and also said their neighborhoods were being frequented by reported drug abusers.

The complaint also states Capurro’s clinic staff members accepted bribes from undercover agents who paid as much as $300 to move ahead of others waiting to see the doctor. Undercover law officers found Capurro would provide unlawful prescriptions for $200 or $250 per patient, according to the document.

“The investigation has revealed individuals could obtain the prescriptions without the benefit of preliminary medical examinations, which would normally include, among other things, measurements of weight and height and blood pressure screening,” Kuntz said.

While acting in an undercover capacity May 31, an FBI task force officer and a cooperating witness went to the Manchester Rehabilitation Center and allegedly obtained prescriptions for Lorcet and Xanax tablets. Both observed about 60 people inside and outside the clinic, according to the statement.

While clinic employees directed the officer and cooperating witness to complete a questionnaire, Kuntz stated no vital signs, blood pressure, weight, height or any other form of medical exam was performed by any of the clinic staff. No medical equipment or supplies were observed in the exam room, the complaint states.

Kuntz said undercover officers went back to the clinic twice in June to obtain prescriptions. The undercover agents complained of pain in various parts of their bodies but “received little to no medical examination by any staff member of the MRC prior to departing the facility.”

During a federal search warrant executed June 21, the agents and officers seized $12,800 in currency in a safe in 64 separate envelopes with different names on each envelope; $3,111 in currency in 22 separate envelopes in a truck parked outside the clinic; and various medical files with little or no medical documentation.

The same day authorities said they found about $70,000 in cash in a shoebox which was under Capurro’s bed at his residence. The box also contained more than 700 pre-stamped prescriptions for Lorcet, the document states.

Federal law allows authorities to seek forfeiture of Capurro’s assets even though formal criminal charges haven’t been filed against him.