Plano, Texas pharmacist Dehshid “David” Nourian, must serve 17 years and six months in prison pay more than $115 million in restitution and forfeit a record $450 million in assets for his role in a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor by submitting fraudulent prescription compound creams claims.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Nourian and others conspired to pay doctors to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured federal workers. Nourian and others owned and operated three pharmacies located in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas. Over the course of the scheme, they paid doctors millions of dollars in illegal bribes and kickbacks for referring expensive compound medications to be filled by those pharmacies.
Evidence at trial showed these compounds were mixed in the back rooms of the pharmacies by untrained teenagers at a cost to the defendants of around $15 per prescription. The pharmacies then billed to the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (“DOL-OWCP”) for as much as $16,000 per prescription.
Patients who received the creams testified at trial to the creams’ ineffectiveness and that using the creams resulted in painful, irritating skin rashes in some instances.
The $450 million forfeiture is the highest forfeiture ever obtained in a health care fraud case in the Justice Department’s history.
In less than three years, between May 2014 and March 2017, the pharmacies billed the DOL-OWCP and Blue Cross Blue Shield more than $145 million and were paid more than $90 million for unnecessary prescriptions referred by medical providers in exchange for the illegal bribes and kickbacks.
Nourian and others then attempted to conceal their ill-gotten gains by laundering the money through purported holding companies and attempted to evade paying $24 million in federal income taxes on the illicit proceeds.
In November 2023, a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas convicted Nourian of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, eight counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to launder money, five counts of money laundering, and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States by failing to report and attempting to evade the collection of taxes owed to the IRS.
A federal court ordered Nourian to serve a 17 and a half years prison sentence and to pay $115 million in restitution on February 21, 2025 as the sanction for his conviction.
In an order issued following Nourian’s sentencing, the court also ruled that Nourian will forfeit $405 million in seized assets tied to his crimes. Evidence at trial demonstrated that Nourian and his co-conspirators used a complex web of bank accounts and shell companies to launder their fraud proceeds, ultimately depositing tens of millions of dollars into Nourian’s and other family members’ bank and investment accounts. The forfeiture order returned that money to the taxpayers and included the forfeiture of $395 million in brokerage accounts, over $2 million in bank accounts, real estate in Dallas and Austin worth $8 million, and a BMW luxury vehicle.
The prosecution and sentencing shows the high price pharmacists and other health care providers can incur for dishonest or other fraudulent conduct in health care or coverage.
The author of this update, Cynthia Marcotte Stamer has decades of experience advising health care providers, Medicare and Medicaid Advantage and other public and private health plans and plan sponsors, government contractors and grant recipients, and their technology, data, third party administrators, and other managed care and other health care, defense, technology, life sciences and other clients about health industry quality, technology, reimbursement, licensing and accreditation, compliance, enforcement, governmental affairs, dispute resolution, and other compliance, risk management and operational matters. If you have questions or need advice or help evaluating or addressing these or other compliance, risk management, or other concerns, contact her.
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About the Author
Recognized by her peers as a Martindale-Hubble “AV-Preeminent” (Top 1%) and “Top Rated Lawyer” with special recognition LexisNexis® Martindale-Hubbell® as “LEGAL LEADER™ Texas Top Rated Lawyer” in Health Care Law and Labor and Employment Law; as among the “Best Lawyers In Dallas” for her work in the fields of “Labor & Employment,” “Tax: ERISA & Employee Benefits,” “Health Care” and “Business and Commercial Law” by D Magazine, Cynthia Marcotte Stamer is a practicing attorney board certified in labor and employment law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and management consultant, author, public policy advocate and lecturer widely known for her more than 35 years of health industry and other management work, public policy leadership and advocacy, coaching, teachings, and publications including leading edge work on workforce and other risk management and compliance.
Ms. Stamer’s work throughout her career has focused heavily on working with health care, health insurance and managed care, insurance and financial services, defense contractors, and other workforce and data sensitive businesses domestically and internationally on employment, benefits, data and other knowledge use and protection, Federal Sentencing Guidelines and other workforce and heath care management, internal and operational controls, regulatory and public policy and other legal and operational concerns. As a part of this work, she has had extensive involvement in the design, enforcement, investigation, mitigation and defense of trade secret and other information privacy and confidentiality, HRIS, claims, electronic medical records, payment, and other systems and technologies; HIPAA and other health industry, DOD, FACTA, GLB, EU, and other data privacy and security, trade secret and other confidential information; and other information privacy and security laws, policies, practices, contracts and requirements.
In addition, Ms. Stamer serves as a Scribe for the American Bar Association (“ABA”) Joint Committee on Employee Benefits annual agency meetings with OCR and shares her thought leadership as International Section Life Sciences Committee Vice Chair, and a former Council Representative, Past Chair of the ABA Managed Care & Insurance Interest Group, former Vice President and Executive Director of the North Texas Health Care Compliance Professionals Association, past Board President of Richardson Development Center (now Warren Center) for Children Early Childhood Intervention Agency, past North Texas United Way Long Range Planning Committee Member, and past Board Member and Compliance Chair of the National Kidney Foundation of North Texas, and a Fellow in the American College of Employee Benefit Counsel, the American Bar Foundation and the Texas Bar Foundation, Ms. Stamer also shares her extensive publications and thought leadership as well as leadership involvement in a broad range of other professional and civic organizations.
Author of many highly regarded compliance, training and other resources on cybercrime and other data privacy and security, health and other employee benefits, health care, insurance, workforce and other risk management and compliance, Ms. Stamer is widely recognized for her thought leadership and advocacy in these matters.
For more information about Ms. Stamer or her health industry and other experience and involvements, see www.cynthiastamer.com or contact Ms. Stamer via telephone at (214) 452-8297 or via e-mail here.
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