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Gus Iversen, Editor in Chief | March 12, 2025
A Texas pharmacist has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $405 million in assets for his role in a multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud scheme that involved submitting fraudulent claims for prescription compound creams.
The case marks the largest-ever forfeiture secured by the Department of Justice’s Health Care Fraud Unit.
Dehshid “David” Nourian, 62, of Plano, was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, multiple counts of health care fraud, conspiracy to launder money, money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the United States by evading taxes. A federal jury in the Northern District of Texas found him guilty in November 2023.
Prosecutors said Nourian and his co-conspirators owned and operated three pharmacies in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas. They paid doctors illegal bribes to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured federal workers, then billed the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (DOL-OWCP) as much as $16,000 per prescription. The creams, mixed in pharmacy back rooms by untrained workers at a cost of roughly $15 per prescription, were largely ineffective, with some patients reporting painful skin reactions.
Between 2014 and 2017, the pharmacies billed more than $145 million to the DOL-OWCP and Blue Cross Blue Shield and received over $90 million in payments. Nourian and his associates laundered the proceeds through shell companies and bank accounts while also attempting to evade $24 million in federal income taxes.
“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,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
Following Nourian’s sentencing, the court ordered the forfeiture of $405 million in assets linked to his crimes. The forfeiture includes $395 million in brokerage accounts, more than $2 million in bank accounts, real estate valued at $8 million in Dallas and Austin, and a luxury BMW.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, and the IRS Criminal Investigation division. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division handled the case.
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