According to the US Department of Justice, the Plano man was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison.
Plano, Texas — The 62-year-old North Texas pharmacist has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $115 million in reparations on a $145 million scheme to fraud the Department of Labor, according to release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
The DOJ said court documents and evidence presented at the trial showed Dehshid “David” Nourian, such as Plano, Texas, conspired to pay doctors to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured federal workers.
During the sentence, Nourian was ordered to lose $455 million in seized assets related to his crime and was sentenced to 17 years and six months.
Nourian and others owned and operated three pharmacies in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas. In the course of the planning, they paid the doctors millions of dollars of illegal bribery and kickbacks. The pharmacies paid to fill out the costly combined drugs, the DOJ said.
The federal government said evidence in court showed that these compounds were mixed in the back room of the pharmacy by untrained teenagers at the expense of approximately $15 per prescription, and was then billed to the Labor Bureau of Labor for $16,000 per prescription.
According to the DOJ, patients who received the cream testified in a trial of ineffectiveness of the cream, and in some cases using the cream resulted in painful and irritating skin rashes.
Between May 2014 and March 2017, the pharmacy was charged over $145 million for the Workers’ Compensation Program and Blue Cross Blue Shield, and more than $90 million for the prescription, federal officials said in a press release. The DOJ said Nourian and others have since tried to hide their profits by washing their money through the holding company and avoid paying $24 million in federal income tax on illegal income.
Nourian was convicted in November 2023 of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, eight counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy for money laundry, five counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy.
“Protecting victims and protecting the public are two of the top priorities of the criminal sector,” said Matthew R. Galeotti, criminal director at the Department of Justice. “The last 17 years of sentence sends a clear message that investigator partners and shoulder-to-shoulder prosecutors will identify, investigate and prosecute the most sophisticated fraud schemes targeting taxpayer money and risky patients.”
The forfeiture order returned the money to taxpayers, including $395 million securities accounts, more than $2 million bank accounts, Dallas and Austin properties worth $8 million, and BMW luxury cars.
