SAN ANTONIO BUSINESSMAN ACQUITTED IN FEDERAL CRIMINAL CASE

SAN ANTONIO, Oct. 28, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- A San Antonio businessman, Lucky S. Ott, Jr., was acquitted in a federal criminal case on October 27, the Law Office of Stephen Chahn Lee announced today.

"We are grateful that the government's misguided prosecution of Lucky Ott is finally done," said Stephen Lee, Mr. Ott's lawyer. "Lucky Ott acted in good faith and did his best to comply with the law, but he trusted the wrong people and then unfortunately was treated by the government like a criminal rather than the victim that he actually was."

Mr. Ott was an owner of Boerne Drug Company, a pharmacy that operated in Boerne, Texas from 2014 to 2019. Like many pharmacies during that time, Boerne Drug Company used marketers to reach patients around the country, not realizing that some of those marketers were using improper cold calls, aggressive tactics, and naive doctors to generate improper prescriptions that Boerne Drug Company's pharmacists filled in good faith.

In April 2019, the federal government arrested a business colleague of Mr. Ott, Chris O'Hara, as part of a law enforcement action known as Operation Brace Yourself, which involved allegations of health care fraud and violations of the Anti-Kickback Statute. The government then wanted Mr. Ott to help the government's prosecution of Mr. O'Hara. Mr. Ott did cooperate with the government and met with them several times, but he refused to falsely say that he committed a crime with Mr. O'Hara as the government wanted. Prosecutors then brought charges against Mr. Ott in 2022 in the Southern District of Georgia, a place which he had never even visited before.

Trial began on October 20 in Statesboro, Georgia. The government's main witness was Mr. O'Hara, who had pled guilty in 2024 to Anti-Kickback Statute charges involving durable medical equipment and medications and millions of dollars in payments made by marketers to Mr. O'Hara's "telemedicine" company. At trial, Mr. O'Hara claimed that he and Mr. Ott had an agreement under which Boerne Drug Company would pay two of Mr. O'Hara's other companies 55 percent of the pharmacy's profits. Mr. Ott's lawyer showed during trial that this claim was contradicted by basic math, common business sense, and another government witness.

Pre-trial filings and evidence presented at trial revealed that the government had made mistakes in its investigation. Among other things, the government had misinterpreted some of Mr. Ott's text messages with a person whom the government never even attempted to interview and had failed to realize that a key document presented by the government had been modified by Mr. O'Hara after he began cooperating.

The government rested its case on October 27. Mr. Lee then filed a motion for acquittal, arguing that the government had failed to present sufficient evidence to establish venue for the case in the Southern District of Georgia. Mr. Lee also argued that the government had failed to present sufficient evidence to establish that Mr. Ott had acted with knowledge that his agreements with Mr. O'Hara and with marketers were illegal, given the complexities of the Anti-Kickback Statute.

U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall granted the motion for acquittal within hours. He found that the government had failed to establish venue in the Southern District of Georgia and did not address the argument about Mr. Ott's lack of knowledge.

Mr. Ott expressed his gratitude to members of the San Antonio community who supported him during this long ordeal, especially Tiffany Richard and his parents.

"I'm glad that this nightmare is finally over and I look forward to my next chapter and helping others, especially those facing similar issues," Mr. Ott said.

Mr. Ott also expressed his gratitude to Amy Lee Copeland, a Georgia defense attorney who served as local counsel on the case.

Mr. Lee is a former federal prosecutor and is a solo practitioner in Chicago, Illinois. Earlier this year, he was one of the lawyers on United States v. Sorensen, in which the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of another businessman on charges involving the Anti-Kickback Statute.

For further information, contact Stephen Lee at [email protected] or 312-436-1790.

SOURCE Law Office of Stephen Chahn Lee, LLC