Dehshid Nourian, 59, of Plano, Texas, and Christopher Rydber, 47, of Fort Worth, Texas, and others conspired to pay physicians to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured federal workers, according to a Nov. 17 Justice Department news release. The pair owned and/or operated three pharmacies in the Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas, areas.
Michael Taba, MD, 59 of Taba, Texas, was one of the physicians paid for referring expensive compound medications to be filled by those pharmacies, according to the release.
Between May 2014 and March 2017, the three pharmacies billed the Labor Department’s worker’s compensation programs and Blue Cross Blue Shield more than $145 million and were paid more than $90 million for unnecessary prescriptions referred by Dr. Taba and other providers in exchange for bribes and kickbacks.
The pharmacy owners attempted to conceal the fraudulent gains by laundering the money through holding companies and attempted to evade paying federal income taxes on the illicit proceeds, according to the release.
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