A Texas pharmacy owner was sentenced today to four years and four months in prison and ordered to pay over $59 million in restitution for paying illegal kickbacks and engaging in a money laundering conspiracy.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Richard Hall, 53, of Fort Worth, worked with others to create and market expensive compounded medications, which are intended to be custom-tailored to individual patient needs. Hall paid marketers to recruit area doctors to write prescriptions for these expensive compounded medications, including by creating “investment opportunities” so that doctors who wrote prescriptions could profit from the pharmacy operations. Hall paid illegal kickbacks to these marketers and engaged in a conspiracy to launder the unlawful proceeds.
In July 2023, a federal jury in the Northern District of Texas convicted Hall of four counts of paying and receiving unlawful kickbacks and one count of conspiring to launder money.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; Special Agent in Charge Michael Mentavlos of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS); Special Agent in Charge Jason E. Meadows of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) Dallas Regional Office; Special Agent in Charge Chad B. Yarbrough of the FBI Dallas Regional Office; Special Agent in Charge Casey Howard of the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (DOL-OIG) Central Regional Office; and Special Agent in Charge Kris Raper of the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG) South Central Field Office made the announcement.
The DCIS, HHS-OIG, FBI, DOL-OIG, and VA-OIG investigated the case.
Assistant Chiefs Kate Payerle and Brynn Schiess and Trial Attorneys Lee Michael Hirsch and Jacqueline DerOvanesian of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section prosecuted the case.
