Posted on 03/11/2025 1:42:49 PM PDT by DFG
A 62-year-old North Texas pharmacist was sentenced to over 17 years in prison and ordered to pay over $115 million in restitution for his role in a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The DOJ said Dehshid “David” Nourian, of Plano, Texas, and others conspired to pay doctors to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured federal workers, according to court documents and evidence presented at trial.
During sentencing, Nourian was ordered to forfeit $405 million in seized assets tied to his crimes and sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison.
Nourian and others owned and operated three pharmacies located in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas. Over the course of the scheme, they paid doctors millions of dollars in illegal bribes and kickbacks for referring expensive compound medications to be filled by those pharmacies, the DOJ said.
The feds said evidence at trial showed these compounds were being mixed in the back rooms of the pharmacies by untrained teenagers at a cost to the defendants of around $15 per prescription and then billed to the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs for as much as $16,000 per prescription.
According to the DOJ, patients who received the creams testified at trial to the creams’ ineffectiveness and, in some instances, that using the creams resulted in painful, irritating skin rashes.
Between May 2014 and March 2017, the pharmacies billed the workers' compensation program and Blue Cross Blue Shield more than $145 million and were paid more than $90 million for the prescriptions, federal officials said in a press release. The DOJ said Nourian and others then attempted to hide their profits by laundering the money through purported holding companies and attempted to evade paying $24 million in federal income taxes on the illegal proceeds.
Nourian was convicted in November 2023 of one count of conspiracy to commit health care 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 defraud the United States by failing to report and attempting to evade the collection of taxes owed to the IRS.
“Protecting victims and safeguarding the public 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."
The forfeiture order returned that money to the taxpayers and included the forfeiture of $395 million in brokerage accounts, over $2 million in bank accounts, real estate in Dallas and Austin worth $8 million, and a BMW luxury vehicle, according to the DOJ.
Good news. Thanks for posting.
There’s a new Sheriff in Town!
I can’t find Deshid’s photo anywhere but you just know. We all know.
Wow! 17 years!
Although it was a hundred million.
while criminals are everywhere and in all cultures, I find people from hardcore-socialist countries like India, China, former Soviet Union, etc... are particularly skilled at stealing from Government
In those places, it was/is a matter of survival and advancement, and a “getting what’s yours” from bloated and corrupt government is a kind of national pastime for every citizen. Also unlike in the West, there is zero morality attached to it -” it’s there, why not go out and take it?”
****ordered to forfeit $405 million in seized assets****
Didn’t Fred Sanford have to so that in one the segments.
Why no charging the Doctors who without their BOUGHT signatures this would never have occurred?
Persian name.
If you are going to rip off the system, know when to quit.
If he invested his crooked sales, he’s probably going to be fine.
The corrupted doctors are next up on the chopping block.
From 2017 indictments...I would bet that the majority of these pharmacists/doctors from the names given came here from Iran...they learned their crooked ways there and brought them here. This is a departure from their used car lots shenanigans.
Have to say it looks like some IG’s were on the job getting the work done on this criminal enterprise - big surprise as they’re usually quite inefficient!!!
https://www.ntxe-news.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=67&num=105464
Always look into imaging and lab services.
I’m interested to learn more.
. . . and a BMW luxury vehicle
Because the BMW is so significant after listing $405 million of other assets.
Dept of Labor?
“safe and effective”...
More fraud found and abuse found, give him 30 years hard labor
“”Persian name.””
My thought also! Just posted as such...Looked for background but couldn’t come up with anything but they’ve had since 1979 to get here and put their “education” to work. Used car lots and fraudulent DMV paperwork was their forte’ in CA...
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