Former owner of 2 Lorain County pharmacies gets 2 years in federal prison for tax fraud

The former owner of two Lorain County pharmacies has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for defrauding the IRS and taxpayers out of more than $422,000. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio announced the prison sentence for Sbeih Sbeih, 57, formerly of North Olmsted, in an Oct. 15 news release. He had pleaded guilty in June to conspiracy to defraud the IRS in U.S. District Court in Cleveland. After being a fugitive for 11 years, during which he lived overseas, Sbeih was arrested earlier this year in the country of Georgia and extradited back to the United States to face criminal charges. Sbeih was charged in 2014 after the Drug Enforcement Agency said he and married couple Osama and Samah Salouha of Strongsville used the Southside Pharmacy on Fulton Road in Lorain and Medicine Center Pharmacy on Cleveland Street in Elyria to illegally sell painkillers and hide their profits from the IRS. Sbeih was a licensed, registered pharmacist. He and Osama Salouha allegedly conspired to move money from the pharmacies into personal bank accounts to hide it from their accountant and the IRS, then allegedly lied to investigators. Sbeih denied to The Chronicle-Telegram for a story in July 2013 that any criminal activity was happening at Southside Pharmacy. "I know that nothing illegal is happening at Southside," he told the newspaper, according to Chronicle archives. An audit found that Southside bought 581,800 oxycodone tablets in 2012, far more than other larger pharmacies. By comparison, the main campus of Cleveland Clinic bought 261,400 tablets that year, according to court records. The Lorain County Drug Task Force assisted the IRS, DEA, FBI, Ohio Board of Pharmacy, Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation and multiple other law enforcement agencies in the investigation. Osama Salouha was charged with illegal distribution of controlled substances, money laundering, tax crimes, lying to federal agents and more. Both he and Sbeih went on the run, and Osama Salouha apparently remains a fugitive to this day. Samah Salouha pleaded guilty in 2015 to making false statements and avoiding IRS reporting requirements. She got three years probation. Sbeih obtained permanent residence in Israel around 2016. A federal judge in 2019 ordered nearly $690,000 in Sbeih family assets to be surrendered to the U.S. government. Federal prosecutors said Sbeih claimed that he wasn't able to leave Israel, but he was arrested while on vacation in the country of Georgia in February and extradited to the United States.Contact Dave O'Brien at 440-329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.