With crimes ranging from opioid distribution to money laundering, nine individuals and two companies from Jefferson County and Southern Indiana were indicted Thursday in what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the largest health care fraud takedown operation in U.S. history.

Sessions said that the suspects accounted for more than $1.3 billion in fraudulent transactions and at least 120 were involved in opioid-related crimes, making it also the largest-ever opioid-related fraud takedown in the nation, USA TODAY reported.

Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said the operation involved 29 field offices around the country and more than 300 agents, including those in Kentucky and Indiana.

John Kuhn, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, and other members of the law enforcement community announced the federal charges against several physicians and medical practitioners in Kentucky and Indiana.

"Alarmingly, we often see health care fraud combined with other crimes such as unlawful dispensing of opioids, which does even more harm," Kuhn said during the press conference. "Today we announce the cooperative efforts of multiple agencies, working to stop the illegal practices by a small segment of the medical community in an effort to restore safety for patients."

In the Western District of Kentucky, indictments were made in three separate cases June 27 and in another Wednesday.

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The four cases involve illegally distributing opioids and other controlled substances, billing for medically unnecessary treatments including never-provided treatments, identity theft and money laundering, according to a press release.

The charges are:

► Jeffrey Campbell, Mark Dyer, Dawn Antle and Physicians Primary Care, PLLC: Campbell, Dryer and Antle are all from Jefferson County. They were charged with multiple counts of unlawful distribution and dispensing of controlled substances including hydrocodone, methadone and oxycodone, according to a press release. Physicians Primary Care is based in Jeffersonville, Indiana. The attorney general's office says they dispensed and distributed substances to patients without a "legitimate medical purpose" and fraudulently billed health care benefit programs to get a higher rate of reimbursement for services that non-physicians performed.

► Claudia Lopez, of Jefferson County, was charged with one count of health care fraud and three counts of mail theft. Lopez is accused of participating in a scheme to fraudulently bill U.S. health care for medical services that were never provided while running the Top Care Chiropractic and Wellness Center Corp. in Louisville off Dixie Highway.

► Janice Peterson,TaneshaWashington andKaterrell Kennedy, from Jefferson County, were charged with one count of unlawful distribution, multiple counts of health care fraud, eight counts of money laundering and three counts of aggravated identity theft. They are accused of distributing and dispensing controlled substances. Patterson is also charged with fraudulently billing Anthem Inc. for autism services never performed, and both she and Kennedy are accused of falsely billing Anthem for autism services while operating Total Specturm Autism Services LLC located near New Albany, Indiana, the press release said. Patterson also was charged with identity theft and money laundering, allegedly using the ID of providers to create accounts for billed services. The money laundering totaled more over $150,000, the press release said.

Kentucky's Western District office also assisted with a case in Indiana that led to an indictment Wednesday of Med 1st of Evansville P.C. and Karen Poeling and Mitchel Stukey, of Evansville. They were charged with conspiracy to commit health care fraud, two counts of conspiracy to violate the Controlled Substances Act and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to documents. They allegedly submitted false or fraudulent claims to Medicaid, Medicare, Anthem and other insurance carriers.

Med 1st allegedly directed staff to falsely bill for medically unnecessary procedures, and Stukey is accused of conspiring with others to illegally distribute and dispense controlled substances. Their actions led to estimated loss of $490,000 to the Indiana Medicaid program, according to a press release from the Indiana attorney general's office.

The FBI and U.S. attorney's office have been tackling opioids and health care fraud in a variety of recent cases.

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Thursday's press conference comes a little more than a month since the sentencing of George Kudmani, a Louisville doctor who was giving out opioids to patients for no medical reason. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Kudmani, 71, was convicted by a jury in January of 19 counts of unlawfully distributing controlled substances and eight counts of health care fraud, following a seven-day jury trial in Louisville on Jan. 26.

Reach Reporter Thomas Novelly at 502-582-4465 or by email at tnovelly@courier-journal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomNovelly.