Better Way Pharmacy
Outcome
Pharmacist-owner Thomas Gbenedio convicted October 2021 and sentenced in 2022 to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison plus $200,000 fine for filling fake, forged, and fraudulent opioid prescriptions from 2014–2016 and charging customers up to $1,000 per fill.
Details
Better Way Pharmacy — Criminal Prosecution for Fake Opioid Prescriptions (2014–2022)
Outcome: Pharmacist-owner Thomas Ukoshovbera A. Gbenedio, 72, was convicted on October 29, 2021, by a federal jury of illegally dispensing and distributing controlled substances, and sentenced in 2022 by U.S. District Judge Thomas W. Thrash, Jr. to 15 years and 8 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, plus a $200,000 fine.
Thomas Gbenedio was a licensed pharmacist who owned and operated Better Way Pharmacy in Mableton, Georgia. From 2014 through 2016, Gbenedio filled prescriptions for controlled substances that were fake, forged, fraudulent, or otherwise illegal. Several of the prescriptions were for large quantities of highly addictive opioids, including oxycodone, and many were purportedly from the same physician.
Gbenedio charged his customers up to $1,000 to fill the illegal prescriptions for controlled substances, operating essentially as a cash pay-to-dispense pill outlet. The investigation began after Georgia Drug and Narcotics Agency (GDNA) agents conducted a routine inspection at Better Way and noticed that several customers were driving long distances — including from Kentucky and Alabama — to have prescriptions filled. The multi-state travel pattern indicated the pharmacy was serving customers who could not obtain these prescriptions filled closer to home.
The investigation revealed the fraudulent nature of the prescriptions. Gbenedio attempted to flee the country after being found guilty. U.S. District Judge Thrash sentenced him to over 15 years in federal prison. The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
Primary Source: DEA Press Release — Pharmacist Found Guilty of Illegally Dispensing and Distributing Controlled Substances (Nov. 10, 2021)
How Crucible Prevents This
Georgia Drug and Narcotics Agency investigators initially flagged the pharmacy through a routine inspection after noticing customers driving from Kentucky and Alabama — multiple states — to fill prescriptions. Crucible's geographic outlier detection for patient origin and the prescriber-pattern analysis tools would have surfaced this multi-state travel pattern and the same-physician prescriber concentration as mandatory escalation triggers.
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