A Chicago doctor who accepted drug-company kickbacks in exchange for prescribing the risky antipsychotic drug clozapine to his patients has been sentenced to nine months in prison.

Dr. Michael Reinstein was the subject of a 2009 Tribune-ProPublica joint investigation, admitted to pocketing nearly $600,000 in cash, vacation trips, and other payments from the drug's manufacturers for prescribing clozapine to hundreds of mentally ill patients in his care, the Chicago Tribune reports.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman said Reinstein served a largely underprivileged group of people who are could not fend for themselves.

The judge also said Reinstein violated the sacred doctor-patient trust by accepting the cash to prescribe clozapine, known as a risky drug of last resort.