CINCINNATI — A Cincinnati physician accused of operating pain clinics in Lawrence County and other locales in southern Ohio has pleaded guilty to money laundering in connection with those clinics.

Gregory L. Ebner, 55, entered his plea this week in U.S. District Court.

According to a statement of facts filed with his guilty plea, Ebner began working in pain clinics in Hanging Rock, Lucasville, Chillicothe and Jackson in January 2001.

“Local law enforcement began investigating the clinics after the public complained that the clinics were attracting drug addicts,” U.S. Attorney Gregory G. Lockhart said. “The clinics would open for a short period of time, only to close and re-open at another location under another name,” he added, noting that the investigation is continuing.

Ebner told the court he prescribed drugs such as Lorcet and Xanax after a cursory medical examination

and that patients paid cash for those prescriptions.

The prescriptions were filled at only a few pharmacies, including the South Shore Pharmacy in South Shore, Ky. He admitted that what he was doing at the clinics was below the accepted standards of medical practice.

The doctor said he received his share of the cash payments at the end of each day he worked at the clinics. He would break down the funds into smaller amounts of currency, typically under $10,000, for deposit into his personal bank accounts so as to avoid the Currency Transaction Reporting (CTR) requirements.

This is known as structuring.

Federal judge Sandra S. Beckwith will sentence Ebner at a later date.

The guilty plea was welcome news to Lawrence County Sheriff Tim Sexton, whose office helped investigate the pain clinic and one on State Route 93 in Elizabeth Township, which was shut down in 2003.

Both clinics received widespread attention and people in the community were vocal in their opposition to what they believed was happened at these sites.

Sexton said apprehending drug suspects, particularly those with extensive resources such as pain clinics, can be time consuming and difficult.

“People have no idea the amount of paperwork in prosecuting these cases,” he said.

“We have to research these prescriptions and the people who receive them and the manner in which they receive them and it takes time to do this. It takes time to complete an investigation and do it correctly so we can convict that person of the crime. But we want people to know we hear their complaints. When they call us we do follow up on what they tell us.”