The DOJ has announced its largest forfeiture in the history of the Department of Justice’s Health Care Fraud Unit. A Texas pharmacist, Dehshid “David” Nourian, has been sentenced to over 17 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $405 million in assets for orchestrating a massive healthcare fraud scheme.
According to the DOJ, Nourian, along with his associates, operated three pharmacies in Texas and engaged in a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor. They paid doctors illegal bribes to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams, which were mixed in the back rooms of the pharmacies by untrained teenagers. These creams, costing around $15 to produce, were billed to government programs for as much as $16,000 per prescription. Patients reported the creams were ineffective and, in some cases, caused painful skin rashes.
Between 2014 and 2017, the scheme resulted in over $90 million in fraudulent payments. Nourian and his team laundered the proceeds through shell companies and evaded $24 million in federal income taxes. The forfeited assets include $395 million in brokerage accounts, $8 million in real estate, and a luxury BMW. Upon announcing Nourian’s sentence, Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, commented that “[t]his 17-year sentence sends a clear message that our prosecutors, working shoulder-to-shoulder with our investigative partners, will identify, investigate, and prosecute even the most sophisticated fraud schemes that target taxpayer money and endanger patients[…].”
This case highlights the Justice Department’s commitment to combating healthcare fraud. The attorneys at Chilivis Grubman also represent clients of all types and sizes in connection to healthcare fraud investigations and litigation. If you need assistance with such a matter, please contact us today.