Ruthia He, founder and former CEO of a digital mental health company, has been sentenced to six years in prison and fined $1 million for her role in a scheme involving the unlawful distribution of Adderall, healthcare fraud and obstruction of justice.
The sentence was announced in a July 7 news release by the U.S. Department of Justice. In a separate case, the company’s former clinical president, David Brody, was sentenced to two years in prison and fined $1 million.
According to the Justice Department, Ms. He orchestrated a business model that used the company’s telehealth platform, compensation structure and clinical protocols to unlawfully distribute more than 37 million Adderall pills, defraud Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurers of more than $12.3 million, and obstruct the subsequent federal investigation. The department said the company sought to grow through a monthly subscription model that encouraged patients to obtain automatically refilled stimulant prescriptions.
Prosecutors said the company spent more than $40 million on social media advertising encouraging Americans to believe they had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and promoting Adderall as a solution. The Justice Department alleged the company continued prescribing stimulants to some patients despite warnings from clinicians and family members that the medications were worsening conditions including bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and stimulant-induced psychosis.
The Justice Department said trial evidence showed the company incentivized clinicians to write prescriptions quickly, paying some as much as $60,000 per month while discouraging or terminating providers who did not follow the company’s prescribing practices. Initial evaluations were limited to half the length of a typical examination, prosecutors said, and the company used an automatic refill feature that reduced follow-up appointments, allowing some patients to receive prescriptions for years without seeing a clinician.
According to the news release, Mr. Brody personally authorized 394,324 Schedule II stimulant pills for 6,559 members he never evaluated or reviewed medical records for.
The Justice Department also alleged that Ms. He and Mr. Brody submitted false prior authorization requests to insurers, falsely representing that the company followed accepted ADHD diagnostic standards, conducted urine drug screening and had tried non-stimulant treatments before prescribing stimulants. As a result, Medicare, Medicaid and commercial insurers paid more than $12.3 million, according to the department.
Federal prosecutors said Ms. He attempted to obstruct the investigation by moving company operations to China, directing employees to communicate through encrypted messaging platforms with disappearing messages, deleting documents and transferring millions of dollars overseas. The department said Ms. He was intercepted while attempting to leave for Hong Kong in February 2023 and later secretly obtained a Chinese travel document after surrendering her passport.
In November 2025, a jury convicted Ms. He and Mr. Brody of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, multiple counts of distribution of controlled substances and conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. Ms. He was also convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice.
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, HHS Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations and IRS Criminal Investigation.
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