MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The organizer of a multi-million-dollar kickback conspiracy was sentenced Wednesday to 36 months in prison and ordered to forfeit more than $1 million, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced.
In a press release, the attorney’s office said 47-year-old Brad Duke of Little Rock, Arkansas promoted prescription pain creams, scar creams and supplements for a Mississippi-based compounding pharmacy and earned a share of what the pharmacy was paid for prescriptions issued by Duke’s affiliated doctors.
Investigators say Duke began to pay kickbacks to generate prescriptions for those with TRICARE insurance after learning the national military’s health provider paid tens of thousands per month per patient for the drugs he was promoting.
According to a press release, Duke paid kickbacks to recruiters to find TRICARE beneficiaries around the country willing to receive the drugs. He explained that a doctor would sign off on the necessary prescriptions without consulting the patients.
The attorney’s office identified the recruiters as Michael “Chance” Beeman (52, of Maumelle, Arkansas), Michael Sean Brady (53, of Little Rock, Arkansas), Jason Greene (35, of Nashville, Tennessee), Brian Means (47, of Fort Smith, Arkansas), and Jennifer Sorenson (44, of McKinney, Texas).
After receiving the beneficiary information from his recruiters, Duke routed prescriptions in the names of the TRICARE beneficiaries to local medical assistant Charlotte Leija, 41, of Conway, Arkansas. Duke paid kickbacks to Leija to file the prescriptions under the name of a doctor she worked for.
According to the attorney’s office, the scheme generated over $10 million in compound drug prescriptions for over 100 TRICARE beneficiaries from as far as Chula Vista, California to Foxborough, Massachusetts within a year. No one ever consulted a prescriber.
Duke paid his recruits more than $2 million to supply the beneficiaries and $250,000 to Leija to issue the prescriptions.
Duke’s co-conspirators were previously sentenced to prison terms ranging from 8 months to 28 months and ordered them to forfeit proceeds ranging from over $198,000 to over $598,000.
As of Wednesday, the U.S. Marshals have seized $1,005,855.86 from Duke.
