https://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/pharmacist-sentenced-to-17-years-forfeits-402-million-for-fraud-money-laundering-scheme

A pharmacist has been sentenced to 17 years in prison and ordered to pay $402 million for his role in a scheme to defraud the federal government.

On Feb. 21, Texas pharmacist Dehshid "David" Nourian, 62, of Plano, was sentenced to 17 years and six months in federal prison and ordered to pay $115 million in restitution for his role in a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor through the submission of fraudulent claims for compounded prescriptions.

On March 6, the court also forfeited $420 million assets tied to Nourian's fraud and money laundering schemes.

According to federal court documents, Nourian and others conspired to pay doctors to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured or sick federally insured workers.

Nourian and others who owned three pharmacies located in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas, allegedly paid doctors millions of dollars in illegal bribes and kickbacks for referring the expensive compounded medications to be filled by the three pharmacies.

Court documents also allege that the expensive compounded creams were being mixed in the back of the pharmacy by untrained teenagers. The prescription creams, which would cost the pharmacy $15 to produce, would be billed to the Department of Labor's Office of Worker's Compensation Programs for as much as $16,000 per prescription.

In addition to this, many patients testified to the cream's inefficacy, with some even stating they developed painful skin rashes as a result of the creams.

“Protecting victims and safeguarding the public fisc are two of the Criminal Division’s highest priorities,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “This 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. As a result of our tireless efforts, this defendant was tried, convicted, and ordered to forfeit more than $400 million – the highest forfeiture ever obtained in a health care fraud case in the Department’s history – and now his ill-gotten proceeds will be returned to the taxpayers and programs designed to care for our most vulnerable citizens.”

In November of 2023, Nourian was convicted by a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, eight counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to launder money, five counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to defraudthe United States byfialing to report and attempting to evade the collection of taxes owed to the IRS.