A Texas Pharmacist Dehshid Nourian was sentenced last month to 17 years and six months in federal prison for his part in a major healthcare fraud scheme involving three pharmacies in Texas. He was ordered to pay $115 million in restitution for his role in the $145 fraud scheme, and the court also ordered Nourian to forfeit $405 million in assets tied to the fraud and money laundering schemes. Reports of court documents and evidence at trial showed that Nourian and others collaborated to perpetrate a familiar fraud in the compounding pharmacy world. The conspirators paid physicians to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams, this time to injured federal workers. Nourian owned and operated three pharmacies in Fort Worth and Arlington, and paid doctors millions in illegal kickbacks to refer compound medications to his pharmacies, where his entities could bill for filling the expensive medications press reports revealed. The indictment alleges that from May 2014 until March 2017 Jamshid Noryian, Dehshid Nourian, and Rydberg obtained and maintained control of Ability Pharmacy, Industrial & Family Pharmacy, and Park Row Pharmacy and filed Payment Information Forms for Ability, Industrial and Family and Park Row to transmit payment electronically from Department of Labor-Office of Workers’ Compensation (“DOL-OWCP”) to the pharmacies for creams used to treat scars, wounds, and pain and had DOL-OWCP reimbursement rates of up to approximately $28,000 per container.
In addition to the fraudulent prescriptions, the case revealed that the compounds were allegedly being mixed in the back rooms of the pharmacies by untrained teenagers for a cost of $15 to the pharmacy. Meanwhile, the pharmacy billed the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs for as much as $16,000 per prescription. At the trial, patients who received the cream said the medicines were ineffective or painful.
Between May 2014 and March 2017, the pharmacies billed the DOL and Blue Cross Blue Shield more than $145 million and were paid more than $90 million for fraudulent prescriptions provided by doctors who were paid illegal bribes. After receiving the funds, court documents found that Nourian and others attempted to conceal the funds through holding companies to evade paying $24 million in federal income taxes on the proceeds.
A federal jury convicted Nourian in November 2023 of several conspiracy counts connected to healthcare fraud, laundering money, and evading the collection of taxes. Following the sentencing, the court ruled that Nourian would forfeit $405 million in seized assets connected to his crime. As the co-conspirators attempted to conceal their proceeds through a web of shell companies and bank accounts registered in family members names, the order returns $395 million in brokerage accounts, $2 million in bank accounts, real estate in Dallas and Austin worth $8 million, and a luxury BMW.
Compounding pharmacies are often at the center of these fraud cases. Pharmacists compound drugs when there is no commercially available product that meets the medication requirements if the patient cannot ingest the medication in pill form, or if the patient is allergic to an ingredient in the available form. Pharmacists and physicians create compound medications by mixing or altering drug ingredients into topical gels, creams, intravenous, injectable, or oral medications. Compounded drugs are not FDA-approved, but they are becoming more and more popular because they are often cheaper than name-brand medicines.
Jeff Newman JD MBA, represents whistleblowers nationwide relating to major tariff fraud concerning imported Chinese goods as well as Medicare and Medicaid fraud cases under the False Claims Act (Qui Tam), and SEC, IRS and FINCEN whistleblower programs. He can be reached at Jeff@JeffNewmanLaw.com or at 617-823-3217
