Chiropractor pleads guilty to pill prescriptions, fraud

Joseph Wagner

The Daytona Beach chiropractor whose practice was raided by federal agents last summer under suspicion that he was prescribing pain pills and defrauding insurance companies pleaded guilty to those offenses Tuesday morning in federal court.

Joseph Burrell Wagner, 62, will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge G. Kendall Sharp in Orlando on Nov. 28, court records show.

Wagner, during an eight-minute hearing, pleaded guilty to health care fraud, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office said and court records show. Other charges related to these three offenses were dropped.

In addition, FBI investigators said in an indictment in late June that Wagner dispensed 2,609 pills using the identifications of "medical doctors, " most notably Dr. John Peter Christensen of West Palm Beach. The names of other doctors have never been provided by investigators.

Joseph Wagner is the father of Volusia County Councilman and attorney Josh Wagner.

Last August, Joseph Wagner's clinic on North Ridgewood Avenue in Daytona Beach was raided by the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement after former clients of the chiropractor reported he was dispensing pain pills and charging insurance companies for treatment he never administered to his patients.

The agents were seeking any evidence that would show Wagner was prescribing controlled substances -- specifically Xanax and Lortab -- and defrauding insurance companies, according to a criminal complaint filed in May by FBI Special Agent John Groeschner Jr.

Not only were patient records seized at the Daytona Beach clinic, but also financial and computer records. Wagner's financial records revealed he has a bank account in the Dominican Republic -- where he went to medical school -- with $76,800 in it.

As the federal investigation moved forward, Wagner relinquished his license to practice last December.

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Chiropractor pleads guilty to pill prescriptions, fraud