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Ohio Man Pleads Guilty to Laundering Health Care Fraud Proceeds for Transnational Criminal Organization

posted 5 days ago
An Ohio man pleaded guilty yesterday to laundering approximately $3.4 million in illicit health care fraud proceeds through multiple regional banks on behalf of a transnational criminal organization (Organization). According to court documents, Eldar Zarbavel, 45, of Pepper Pike, Ohio, was a money launderer for the foreign-based Organization that spearheaded the largest health care fraud case ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice, as uncovered by Operation Gold Rush . The Organization, based in Russia and elsewhere, orchestrated a multi-billion-dollar health care fraud and money laundering scheme to target, exploit, and steal from Medicare and private ...

The Rise of Telehealth 'Pill Mills'

posted 6 days ago
The elderly patient’s blood pressure had been dropping for weeks, and Chad Wittekind, his primary care provider, couldn’t figure out what was wrong. He had upped the dosage of one medication and added another, but couldn’t manage to regulate it. Read Article #Telehealth #PatientHarm #InternetPharmacy

Statement from Partnership for Safe Medicines on New Litigation Alleging Illegal Distribution of Retatrutide

posted 6 days ago
Partnership for Safe Medicines Executive Director Shabbir Imber Safdar released the following statement on the six lawsuits Eli Lilly filed today against businesses it accuses of illegally distributing unapproved copies of its investigational drug, retatrutide. Lilly is suing these defendants for illegal distribution of retatrutide including, in one case, a licensed 503A compounding pharmacy. “The activities alleged here would pose a broad and serious danger to patient safety. Federal law here is not ambiguous. Retatrutide is an investigational drug and cannot lawfully be distributed for routine patient use under sections 503A or 503B, a point the Alliance ...

Fluvanna County Pharmacist Charged with Stealing Prescription Opioids

posted 6 days ago
Joshua Walden Replaced Liquid Hydromorphone Intended for Medical Use with Water CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – A federal grand jury indictment was unsealed today charging a Fluvanna County pharmacist with diverting liquid hydromorphone for his own use and replacing it with water. According to the indictment, Joshua Joseph Walden, 52, who previously worked at Jefferson Pharmacy in Palmyra, Virginia, is charged with one count of tampering with consumer products and attempt to tamper with a consumer product, two counts of theft of pre-retail medical products, and one count of acquiring a controlled substance by fraud. Walden worked as a pharmacist from ...

Ex-CBP Officer Sentenced for Opening His Inspection Lane to Cartel Drug Smugglers

posted 12 days ago
Former U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer Jesse Clark Garcia was sentenced in federal court today to nine years in prison for allowing drug-laden vehicles to pass through his inspection lane at the Tecate Port of Entry on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel. The sentencing follows a long‑term, multi‑agency investigation that uncovered a significant corruption scheme involving Garcia and his co-defendant, then-Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer Diego Bonillo. Both officers pleaded guilty in July 2025, with Garcia admitting that since at least 2021, he provided the Sinaloa Cartel-linked drug trafficking organization with his duty schedules and lane ...

A Refill on Relief: FDA Extends DSCSA Exemption for Small Dispensers as Assessment Begins

posted 12 days ago
On August 6, the US Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) announced it is extending an existing Drug Supply Chain Security Act ( DSCSA ) exemption for small dispensers until November 27, 2027, as the FDA begins its small dispenser assessment. Read Article #DSCSAGuidance

Experts say healthcare faces cybersecurity crisis: ‘These are patient safety issues’

posted 12 days ago
Regulatory failures, funding constraints and industry consolidation have created serious hacking risks. Cyberattacks on the healthcare industry have brought hospitals, clinics and other providers to a breaking point, researchers said on Friday. Read Article #Cybersecurity #PatientHarm

DEA: 50 Years of Service. One Historic Book.

posted 13 days ago
While we celebrate America’s 250th anniversary this year, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) marks its 53rd anniversary. To commemorate the people and mission behind five decades of drug law enforcement, DEA released a historic book. Spanning from 1973 to 2023, the book, Honoring the Past, Serving the Future , captures the agency’s evolution through historic operations, global milestones, and personal stories of courage and sacrifice. Here is what you will find inside: Hundreds of photographs from DEA archives Global, historic operations and defining moments from DEA’s 50-year legacy Wall of Honor section honoring the people ...

Texas Physician Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison for Operating a Houston-Area Pill Mill

posted 14 days ago
A Texas physician was sentenced yesterday to 12.5 years in prison for operating her Kingwood medical clinic as an illegal pill mill that issued prescriptions for over 3 million opioid pills. According to court documents, Maryam Qayum, M.D., 68, of Montgomery County, Texas, owned, operated, and was the sole prescriber at Recare Health Clinic (Recare). Qayum operated Recare as a cash-only pill-mill, selling controlled substance prescriptions to street-level drug dealers who were referred to at Recare as “providers.” “Providers” purchased prescriptions for high strength, highly addictive opioids oxycodone and hydrocodone. Qayum issued these prescriptions without ...

Nevada Doctor Charged with $95M Wound Care Fraud on Medicare

posted 14 days ago
National Fraud Enforcement Division’s first announced charges in Nevada since the formation of the West Coast Health Care Fraud Strike Force A federal grand jury in the District of Nevada returned an indictment yesterday charging Stephen Dubin, M.D., 74, of Henderson, Nevada, with a $95 million scheme to defraud Medicare by billing for medically unnecessary amniotic wound allografts that he and others applied to elderly Medicare patients. “This indictment exposes a scheme driven by greed, not medicine. As alleged, this provider exploited elderly patients by pushing costly and unnecessary medical procedures, then lied to Medicare to pocket millions ...

The Fraud Division Announces Charges Against 19 Defendants for Medicaid Home Health Aid Schemes

posted 15 days ago
Division Expands Northeast Strike Force to Philadelphia to Target Health Care Fraud Schemes, Provide Full-Spectrum Accountability The Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division (Fraud Division) announced a major investment in combatting Medicaid fraud through a significant expansion of the Division’s Northeast Health Care Fraud Strike Force to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, an enforcement initiative uniting the Division’s Health Care Fraud Section with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The Health Care Strike Force model has proven to be one of the most powerful tools in the federal enforcement arsenal, responsible ...

CEO and VA Employee Plead Guilty to Paying and Receiving Illegal Health Care Kickbacks and Bribes

posted 20 days ago
Two Florida men pleaded guilty this week to conspiracy to pay and receive illegal health care kickbacks and bribes. According to court documents, Laurent Cassagnol, 43, and Heriberto Rivera, 43, both of Orlando, Florida, conspired to refer patients of the VA Community Care Program (VACCP) to Family Integrative Medicine of Orlando, LLC (FIMO) for acupuncture, chiropractic adjustments, and other holistic medical services. Rivera, the CEO of FIMO, admitted to paying kickbacks and bribes to Cassagnol, an Advanced Medical Support Assistant for VACCP, in exchange for Cassagnol steering VA patients to FIMO for medical services. Cassagnol admitted to accepting Rivera’s ...

Three Individuals Sentenced to Prison for Fraudulently Billing Medicare and Medicaid Through Opioid Addiction Treatment Clinics in Kentucky

posted 26 days ago
A Texas businessman, a Kentucky doctor, and a Kentucky woman were sentenced to prison for their roles in fraudulently billing Medicare and Kentucky Medicaid over $4.8 million through a series of addiction treatment facilities. Today, Michael Bregenzer, 53, of Houston, Texas, was sentenced to 48 months in prison, followed by 3 years of supervised release. In February 2026, José Alzadon, M.D., 62, of Paintsville, Kentucky, was sentenced to 60 months in prison. In January 2026, Barbie Vanhoose, 63, of West Van Lear, Kentucky, was sentenced to 24 months in prison. All three defendants were ordered to pay restitution of $812,881.09. According to evidence ...

Office of National Drug Control Policy Releases First Wastewater-Based Drug Testing Report

posted 27 days ago
Trump Administration Uses New Methods to Monitor Drug Supply for Emerging Drug Threats This month, the Office of National Drug Control Policy released its first-ever report on Wastewater-Based Drug Testing. The Trump Administration is using new and innovative technologies like wastewater-based drug monitoring to provide near real-time data to respond to the drug crisis. Under President Trump’s leadership, drug overdose deaths continue to drop each month, and American communities are safer and healthier. This report builds on the following goals outlined in the first chapter of the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy : Leveraging wastewater testing ...

Florida Pharmacist Convicted of Massive Oxycodone Distribution Conspiracy

posted 28 days ago
Defendant dispensed 300,000+ pills to patients with no medical need at 10x the price A federal jury in the Southern District of Florida convicted a Florida licensed pharmacist and pharmacy owner yesterday for her role in dispensing over 300,000 oxycodone 30mg pills to pharmacy patrons who had no medical need for the drug. According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Olushola Yusuf, 60, of Tampa, dispensed oxycodone to nearly all her pharmacy customers. Yusuf charged customers approximately 10 times the typical cost of the drug and required payment from them in cash. In total, Yusuf dispensed at least 335,351 pills of oxycodone 30mg during ...

Medical Supply Company Owner Convicted of $30M Medicare Fraud Scheme

posted 28 days ago
A federal jury in the Middle District of Florida convicted an Oklahoma business owner and chiropractor yesterday for his role in a yearslong scheme that attempted to bilk Medicare, TRICARE, and the Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Department of Veterans Affairs (CHAMPVA) out of over $30 million by purchasing patient information, medical practitioners’ signatures, and doctors’ orders for orthotic braces and glucose monitors that patients did not want or need. “The defendant turned private medical data into a pipeline for personal profit,” said Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division. ...

New Mexico Woman Pleads Guilty to $4M Medicaid Fraud

posted 30 days ago
A New Mexico woman pleaded guilty today to working with a non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) company to submit millions of dollars in false and fraudulent claims to New Mexico Medicaid for ineligible and non-existent trips to medical appointments. According to court documents, Dorothea Irving, 47, of Farmington, New Mexico, worked as a driver between 2020 and 2026 for a company that provided non-emergency medical transportation. The New Mexico Medicaid program covers the cost of transportation for non-emergency medical services, such as routine doctors’ appointments, for Medicaid recipients who lack access to transportation by personal vehicle or public ...

Cychlorphine, a drug 10 times stronger than fentanyl, showing up in North Louisiana street pills

posted 07-16-2026
A synthetic opioid more potent than fentanyl is appearing in street drugs across North Louisiana, and investigators say it is turning up in larger quantities. Cychlorphine is being mixed into pills that look nearly identical to common prescription medications, including oxycodone and hydrocodone tablets. The North Louisiana Crime Lab has recorded more cases from North Louisiana parishes testing positive for the drug over the last six months. Read Article #Louisiana #Cychlorphine #EmergingDrugTrends

FDA Proposes New Drug Manufacturing Rule: What Distributed Manufacturing and Foreign API Registration Changes Could Mean for Pharma Compliance

posted 07-14-2026
In the wake of the Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) ambitious unified agenda, on July 13, 2026, the agency published a proposed rule aiming to align its regulatory frameworks with “how distributed manufacturing actually works.” The proposed rule would create a tailored drug establishment registration framework for certain distributed manufacturing establishments (DMEs) and clarify the registration and listing obligations applicable to certain foreign drug establishments. Read Article #DSCSAGuidance

Two New Jersey Men Sentenced for Fentanyl Analogue Distribution in Homeland Security Task Force Investigation

posted 07-09-2026
Two New Jersey men were sentenced this week for their roles in a drug trafficking organization that imported fentanyl analogues from China and distributed them in pill form throughout Northern New Jersey.Nine individuals have been charged and convicted for their roles in this drug trafficking organization. In total, they imported over a metric ton of fentanyl-related substances and other drugs into the United States and sent hundreds of thousands of dollars to China using wire transfers and Bitcoin to pay for the drugs. Thus far, five individuals have been sentenced to a total of 685 months in prison. On July 7, Sean Tighe, 50, of North Haledon, New Jersey, ...