Federal Grand Jury Indicts Eight Individuals Charged In a $158 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/federal-grand-jury-indicts-eight-individuals-charged-158-million-health-care-fraud

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
Northern District of Texas

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, March 24, 2017

Federal Grand Jury Indicts Eight Individuals Charged In a $158 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme

DALLAS – An indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Dallas this week, and unsealed today, charges eight individuals with offenses related to their participation in a health care fraud scheme, announced John Parker, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.

The defendants charged are:

Jamshid Noryian, aka “James Noryian,” 59, of Austin

Dehshid Nourian, aka “David Nourian,” 53, of Plano

Christopher Rydberg, 40, of Fort Worth

Ashraf Mofid, aka “Sherri Mofid,” 68, of Van Alstyne

Leyla Nourian, 48, of Frisco

Leslie Benson, 63, of Waco

Michael Taba, 52, of McKinney

Kevin Williams, 47, of Waxahachie

Each indicted defendant is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. Jamshid Noryian, Dehshid Nourian, Rydberg, Mofid, and Leyla Nourian are also charged with one count of conspiracy to launder money and engage in monetary transactions in criminally derived property. The defendants were released on bond pending trial.
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The indictment alleges that from May 2014 until March 2017 Jamshid Noryian, Dehshid Nourian, and Rydberg obtained and maintained control of Ability Pharmacy, Industrial & Family Pharmacy, and Park Row Pharmacy and filed Payment Information Forms for Ability, Industrial and Family and Park Row to transmit payment electronically from Department of Labor-Office of Workers’ Compensation (“DOL-OWCP”) to the pharmacies for creams used to treat scars, wounds, and pain and had DOL-OWCP reimbursement rates of up to approximately $28,000 per container.

Mofid, Rydberg, and Leyla Nourian operated Bandoola Pharmaceutical in order to make payments to doctors for referring prescriptions of DOL-OWCP patients to the pharmacies and concealed these payments with “promissory notes” to make it appear as though the payments were loans instead of payments for sending prescriptions to the pharmacies. Specifically, prescription pads were created and provided to doctors referring prescriptions to Ability. Jamshid Noryian marketed the creams to doctors treating DOL-OWCP patients and induced doctors to send unnecessary and excessive prescriptions for compound medications to the pharmacies in return for payments, free rent and other inducements and payments.

Jamshid Noryian instructed employees of Ability to contact patients and doctors and request refills when the pharmacy was not processing sufficient prescriptions, prescribe pain creams unnecessarily when patients were already prescribed controlled substance medications for pain management and write prescriptions for compound medications for all patients regardless of whether they wanted or needed the medications.

Taba instructed his employees to review the patient visit schedule at the end of each day and write prescriptions for compound creams for each patient, and send the prescriptions to the pharmacies. The medications were not tailored to the individual patient; every patient received the same compound medications.

Jamshid Noryian closely monitored the claims submitted to DOL-OWCP, and the payments received, by checking a computer program several times a day to see the amount of money that had been billed for the day. Jamshid Noryian instructed employees to text him the amount of money made at the end of the day if he was out of the office.

Approximately $158 million in false and fraudulent claims were submitted to FECA through OWCP, and approximately $82 million as payment for those claims were received. The government has seized over $50 million in assets related to the criminal conduct.
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