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Press Release

Texas pharmacy owner indicted in conspiracy that netted more than $10 million in payments for expensive drugs

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Georgia
indctment alleges kickbacks paid for prescriptions

STATESBORO, GA:  A Texas pharmacy owner is charged in a federal indictment for a scheme that generated millions of dollars in payments for unnecessary, expensive prescriptions through bribes paid to prescribing physicians.

Lucky S. Ott Jr., 44, of Boerne, Texas, is charged with Conspiracy in a one-count indictment alleging that he participated in a scheme to generate revenue by paying doctors to write prescriptions for expensive drugs that were reimbursed by insurance companies, said David H. Estes, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. The charge carries a statutory penalty of up to 15 years in prison, along with substantial financial penalties and up to three years of supervised release following any prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

“Prescription drug fraud increases health care costs for everyone, including taxpayers who subsidize social safety net programs,” said U.S. Attorney Estes. “With our law enforcement partners, we will identify and shut down operations using illegal means to enrich those who profit at patient and taxpayer expense.”

According to the indictment, Ott was the owner of Boerne Drug in Boerne, Texas. The newly returned indictment by a Southern District of Georgia U.S. District Court Grand Jury alleges that from about 2017 to April 2019, Ott and co-conspirators offered and paid bribes to prescribing physicians in exchange for prescriptions for expensive drugs, including prescriptions to patients in the Southern District of Georgia whose information was obtained through the fraudulent use of a telemedicine call center. Boerne Drug would fill those prescriptions, typically for topical creams and gels, sending the unnecessary drugs to the named patients, and then receive reimbursement from pharmacy benefit managers.

During the time of the conspiracy, the indictment alleges that Boerne Drug and its co-conspirators paid more than $1 million in kickbacks and bribes, and received more than $10 million in reimbursements from insurance programs including Medicare and Tricare.   

Criminal indictments contain only charges; defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

The case is being investigated by the FBI, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and prosecuted for the United States by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan A. Porter and Ryan C. Grover.

Contact

Barry L. Paschal, Public Affairs Officer: 912-652-4422

Updated August 4, 2022

Topics
Prescription Drugs
Health Care Fraud
Press Release Number: 104-22