Ocean Springs plans to buy prime real estate owned by duo in prison for $18M fraud scheme

Editor’s note: Ocean Springs Mayor Kenny Holloway said the city would like to transform the land where the current Public Works building sits into a mixed use development. An earlier version of this story made that point unclear and has been corrected for accuracy.

Although in jail for fraud, two men stand to profit from Ocean Springs taxpayers.

The city of Ocean Springs is preparing purchase a property owned by Levins Enterprises LLC., a defunct corporation affiliated with Dempsey “Bryan” Levi and Jeffrey Rollins, two businessman who recently pleaded guilty to an $18 million health care fraud scheme and are currently serving a seven-year sentence in federal prison.

In a vote on Mardi Gras day, Ocean Springs Mayor Kenny Holloway was given the rights to negotiate the purchase of the prime piece of real estate on Bienville Boulevard.

The motion was part of the “consent agenda,” meaning the decision was considered routine by the board.

It passed unanimously without discussion.

The mayor was not present for the vote, and Ward 6 Alderman Michael Impey acted in his place.

The other officials on the board — Jennifer Burgess, Ken Papania, Kevin Wade and Robert Blackman — voted in favor of the motion.

Ward 4 Alderman Papania did not return calls requesting comment. The property is in his ward.

“I am aware of all the players in the property and that really has nothing to do with the city and what our plans are,” Holloway said. “As long as there is a clean title and no environmental issues, that is what we are concerned with.”

The plan for the property

Holloway said the new property will house the Public Works department.

“The property is one of the few industrial zoned properties in Ocean Springs,” Holloway said. “It is just a good move for the city... We’ve got to maximize the potential of the growth of Ocean Springs.”

He said the only other industrial area in Ocean Springs is located across from Walmart.

The 6.2-acre industrial property is currently listed for $545,600 and has been up for sale for 19 days.

Holloway wants to turn the property where the current Public Works Department sits into a mixed use development area with housing and food and beverage businesses.

Medicare, TRICARE fraud

The scheme that landed the two men in jail spanned more than five years, from January 2014 and May 2019 and involved Clark Levi, Dempsey Levi’s brother and the pair’s former business partner.

Clark Levi and his wife, Amelda, died in 2019 after their Porsche convertible left the roadway and struck a tree in Ocean Springs. The FBI had raided Clark Levi’s pharmacy, Lovelace Drugs in downtown Ocean Springs, months earlier in connection to the fraud cause.

According to a criminal complaint from the case, the three men received kickbacks and paid bribes in exchange for promoting compound prescriptions and marketing them to patients who didn’t need them, the Sun Herald reported.

Dempsey Levi and Rollins pleaded guilty in March 2021 to recruiting people to get expensive medications “with numerous refills,” the Attorneys office said at the time.

The two also pleaded guilty to incentivizing doctors to authorize prescription medications.

When arrested, the pair were ordered to pay $16,333,583 in restitution to Medicare, military insurer TRICARE and Express Scripts. The government also received $924,114.40 in funds seized during the investigation.

Dempsey Levi, Rollins and another have filed a lawsuit against Clark Levi’s estate, claiming that he “cooked books” at one of his businesses the trio invested in, owing them together more than $3.7 million.

Sun Herald reporter Margaret Baker contributed to this report.

This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 1:37 PM.