Former South Florida Pharmacy CEO Sentenced to Prison for Lying to Federal Investigators

MIAMI – On Feb. 23, Patrick Smith, 71, of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the former CEO and President of Patient Care America (PCA), a compounding pharmacy located in Broward County, was sentenced to 6 months in prison for lying to federal agents who were investigating PCA for various health care fraud offenses.

According to court records, in March of 2020 Smith voluntarily met with DCIS agents who were investigating PCA on allegations of health care fraud and payment of kickbacks to marketing groups that solicited TRICARE beneficiaries on behalf of PCA. TRICARE is the health care benefit program for United States military members and their families. During that interview, Smith lied to agents about his role in the scheme. Smith falsely claimed, for example, that he played no role in hiring the marketing groups and that he didn’t know they were directly soliciting TRICARE beneficiaries.

In all, PCA paid over $40 million in kickbacks to the marketers for recruiting and referring TRICARE beneficiary prescriptions for expensive, unnecessary compounded medications to PCA. To date, over a dozen of PCA’s marketers and employees have been convicted and sentenced for their roles in the scheme. The government has recovered more than $30 million in fraud proceeds from PCA and the individual defendants.

Smith was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Roy K. Altman.  Smith pled guilty, on July 21, 2023, to making a materially false statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Defense.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe of the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Darrin K. Jones of the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General, Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), Southeast Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Justin C. Fielder of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Office of Criminal Investigations (FDA-OCI), Miami Field Office, made the announcement.

DCIS and FDA-OCI investigated this case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon Juenger prosecuted this case. DCIS, FDA-OCI, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General (VA-OIG), and the FBI investigated related cases.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case number 22-cr-20532.

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