A Whitefish doctor was given a five-year deferred sentence on Thursday for spending money intended to be deposited in an unregistered security investment for expenses not related to the investment company.

It is not the first time questionable money-making practices have put Joe Glickman Jr. under the scrutiny of authorities.

Glickman also was ordered by Flathead District Judge Heidi Ulbricht to pay $55,000 in restitution as part of his felony conviction for failure to register a security. Felony charges of theft, failure to register as a securities salesperson, and fraudulent practices were dropped as part of a plea agreement.

According to court documents, between June 1, 2009, and December 28, 2011, Glickman solicited investors to purchase shares of MWM Special Group LP. The company was supposed to complete and market the patent-pending Magic Website Maker, a web platform that would allow people to make and market websites.

At least 11 people in Flathead County invested $167,500 in the company. Glickman and 32 out-of state investors contributed $484,950. The company was never registered with the federal government, nor was Glickman a registered broker.

Glickman claimed in a letter to government investigators that he thought his company qualified for an exception to the regulations.

Investigators also determined that Glickman accepted $35,000 from a potential investor in June 2010 and wired more than $17,000 of the money in September and October of 2010 to companies not related to the business expenses of MWM Special Group. At least $13,000 invested by all parties went to Glickman’s personal use, investigators claim.

Glickman’s attorney Paul Sullivan told the judge that Glickman lost most of his money in the endeavor. He asked that Glickman only have to pay $200 per month toward restitution, although the doctor intended to pay more.

“He lost more money than anyone. It’s left him in a very tight financial position,” Sullivan said. “Today, he simply can’t meet the time line set by the state.”

Ulbricht nixed that proposal and instead agreed to a payment schedule proposed by Montana Special Assistant Attorney General Michael Kakuk. Glickman will have to pay the $55,000 off in five years, including $5,000 within the next year.

Kakuk noted Glickman’s proposed payment plan “doesn’t get anywhere close to the $55,000 he owes for restitution.” Some of the victims also counted themselves as Glickman’s friends and didn’t ask for restitution, Kakuk said.

Kakuk said that he thought it was generous of the state to only ask for $5,000 in payment the first year of his sentence.

Ulbricht agreed and said requiring only $2,400 in payment the first year was not enough.

“The court doesn’t see that as a sufficient payment in regards to the total amount of restitution,” Ulbricht said.

Glickman will be allowed to be self-employed as part of his sentence and Sullivan said that there is an opportunity for him to make money writing medical textbooks or other medical literature.

That is an area in which Glickman has gotten into trouble in the past.

In March 1975 Glickman was ordered by a Texas court to stop infringing on the copyrights of Dr. William W. Neal, who had made a verbal agreement with Glickman to publish a print guide for medical-school students. A judge found that Glickman made an identical guide and marketed it without Neal’s permission and without giving Neal credit.

In 2008, Glickman was ordered by the federal government to tone down the claims he had on a website marketing a micronutrient supplement called Beta-mannan.

The website had claims that the supplement could be used to cure or treat herpes, human papillomavirus and other ailments involving the female reproductive tract.

“On your website, you claim that your products are dietary supplements,” the Food and Drug Administration wrote in a warning letter to Glickman. “A dietary supplement may not bear claims that it prevents or treats a disease, except for authorized health claims about reducing the risk of a disease. Other disease prevention and treatment claims render the product a drug subject to the drug requirements of the [Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic] Act. Your products make disease prevention and treatment claims that are not authorized health claims; accordingly they qualify as drugs under the Act.”

Glickman’s website now bears the disclaimer: “These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.