Final Defendant Sentenced in Health Care Fraud Scheme
Drug Company Rep Sentenced in Scheme Involving Buying and Selling Prescription Drug Samples

LOUISVILLE, KY—Michael Carney, age 61, of Bardstown, Kentucky, was sentenced on charges of health care fraud and prohibited drug acts by Judge Thomas B. Russell, United States Attorney Candace G. Hill of the Western District of Kentucky announced today.

During his plea, Carney admitted that between 2003 and 2006 he was engaged in the sale or trading of prescription drug samples. Carney worked as a drug company representative and sold prescription drug samples at Rouben’s Pharmacy. Carney was paid $177,752 for his role by the owner, Brian Ullom. Once the samples were purchased, they were removed from their sample packaging and placed in the pharmacy’s inventory. These samples were later sold to consumers, whose insurance companies, including Medicare and Medicaid, were billed full price. The owner of the pharmacy, Brian Ullom, was sentenced on August 17, 2009 to 15 months’ imprisonment. Ullom was ordered to pay $2.3 million in criminal restitution and $300,000 as part of a civil settlement. Another defendant, George Deusner, a pharmacy tech, was sentenced to 2 years’ probation. Deusner previously agreed to forfeit the $171,660 he received from the scheme. Rouben received a sentence of 2 years’ probation, and was ordered to pay a fine of $2,000. An agreed money judgment was entered in the amount of $58,090
for his role in the scheme.

Carney received a sentence of 2 years’ probation. He entered into an agreed money judgment to pay $177,752 for his role in the scheme.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Lettricea Jefferson-Webb, and it was investigated by the United States Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations, Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.