April 15, 2020

Reference Laboratory, Pain Clinic, and Two Individuals Agree to Pay $41 Million to Resolve Allegations of Unnecessary Urine Drug Testing

Logan Laboratories Inc. (Logan Labs), a reference laboratory in Tampa, Florida; Tampa Pain Relief Centers Inc. (Tampa Pain), a pain clinic also based in Tampa Florida, and; two of their former executives, Michael T. Doyle and Christopher Utz Toepke ( collectively, Defendants) have agreed to pay a total of $41 million to resolve alleged violations of the False Claims Act for billing Medicare, Medicaid, TRICARE, and other federal health care programs for medically unnecessary Urine Drug Testing (UDT), the Department of Justice announced today. Both Logan Labs and Tampa Pain are subsidiaries of Surgery Partners Inc. Doyle is the former CEO of Surgery Partners and Logan Labs. Toepke is the former Group President for Ancillary Services at Surgery Partners, with oversight of Logan Labs, and a former Vice President at Tampa Pain.

March 30, 2020

Georgia Man Arrested for Orchestrating Scheme to Defraud Health Care Benefit Programs Related to COVID19 and Genetic Cancer Testing

NEWARK, N.J. – A Georgia man will appear in court today for his alleged role in a conspiracy to defraud federally funded and private health care benefit programs by submitting fraudulent testing claims for COVID-19 and genetic cancer screenings, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

March 27, 2020

Former Co-Owner and COO of Pharmacy Pleads Guilty in Prescription Drug Billing Scheme

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Today an additional defendant pled guilty in a long-running investigation into a prescription drug-billing scheme involving a Haleyville, Ala.-based pharmacy, Northside Pharmacy doing business as Global Compounding Pharmacy. U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp, Jr., U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General, Special Agent in Charge Derrick L. Jackson, Defense Criminal Investigative Service Special Agent in Charge Cynthia Bruce, United States Postal Inspector in Charge, Houston Division Adrian Gonzalez, and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation Acting Special Agent in Charge Andrew Thornton announced the charges.

March 20, 2020

Jacksonville-Area Doctor Pays $850,000 To Settle Allegations She Received Illegal Kickbacks To Prescribe The Fentanyl Drug Subsys

U.S. Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez announced today that Dr. Parveen Khanna has paid the United States $850,000 to resolve a civil False Claims Act investigation into whether she submitted false claims to the TRICARE and Medicare programs that were incentivized by illegal kickbacks.

March 16, 2020

Jury Finds Los Angeles Businessman Guilty in $1 Billion Biodiesel Tax Fraud Scheme

A federal jury in Salt Lake City, Utah, convicted California businessman Lev Aslan Dermen, also known as Levon Termendzhyan, of criminal charges today relating to a $1 billion renewable fuel tax credit fraud scheme, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman of the Justice Department’s Tax Division, U.S. Attorney John W. Huber for the District of Utah, Don Fort Chief of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - Criminal Investigation, Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Lance Ehrig for the Denver Area Office of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Criminal Investigation Division, and Special Agentin-Charge Michael Mentavlos for the Denver Area Office of Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

March 12, 2020

Pensacola Compounding Pharmacy Owner Convicted In $4.8 Million Tricare Fraud And Money Laundering Conspiracies

A federal jury in Pensacola has convicted Andrew E. Fisher, 34, of Gulf Breeze, of conspiring to use his pharmacy to defraud more than $4.8 million from TRICARE, a federal health care program for uniformed service members, retirees, and their families, and then laundering the money generated by the fraud . The guilty verdict, reached by the jury on Monday, was announced today by Lawrence Keefe, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.

March 11, 2020

Louisville Psychiatrist Pleads Guilty To Distributing Controlled Substances Without A Medical Purpose

Louisville psychiatrist Dr. Peter Steiner has pleaded guilty to intentionally distributing schedule II, III, and IV controlled substances, without any legitimate medical purpose and outside the course of professional medical practice, announced United States Attorney Russell Coleman.

March 11, 2020

All Five Defendants Convicted in Federal Cream Fraud Scheme

All five defendants have been convicted in federal court for their roles in a scheme defrauding both private insurance companies and government insurance programs of over $30 million dollars. The scheme involved sham prescriptions for compounded creams and medications, oftentimes issued without the supposed patient even knowing about them, and were frequently signed by a health care provider who never even met the patient.

March 10, 2020

Upstate New York Businessman Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud, Pays More Than $700,000 to Resolve False Claims Act Liability

Daren Arakelian, age 52, of Rensselaer, New York, pled guilty today to wire fraud for a scheme to import Chinese goods into the United States and then causing his company, Great 4 Image, Inc., to deceptively market and sell those goods to federal agencies as U.S.-made. Arakelian has also agreed to pay $702,000, plus interest, to the United States to resolve his civil liability for his submission of false claims for payment to the federal government.

March 4, 2020

Lecanto Medical Biller Sentenced In Large Healthcare Fraud Scheme

Tampa, FL- U.S. District Judge Mary S. Scriven today sentenced Teresa Johnson (53, Lecanto) to five years' probation, with four months of home detention, for conspiring with a local doctor to commit health care fraud. As part of her sentence, the court also ordered Johnson to pay restitution to the defrauded federal health care programs and, entered a money judgment of more than $5,700, representing a portion of Johnson's health care fraud proceeds.