AGENDA MARCH 10, 2021 - Oklahoma, www.OK.gov
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Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Former Owners of Telemarketing Company Agree to Pay At Least $4 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations Relating to Compounding Pharmacies
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Former Owners of Telemarketing Company Agree to Pay At Least $4 Million to Resolve False Claims Act Allegations
Two Florida men have agreed collectively to pay at least $4 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by engaging in schemes to generate prescriptions for compounded drugs and refer those prescriptions to pharmacies in exchange for illegal kickbacks. Many of those prescriptions were billed to TRICARE, the federal health care program providing insurance for active duty military personnel, military retirees, and military dependents.
Jack Lee Stapleton, of Gulf Stream, and Jack Hunter Stapleton, of Fort Lauderdale, formerly owned a marketing business in Fort Lauderdale which operated under various names, including CV McDowell LLC, and J&J Tel Marketing LLC (the Stapleton Entities). The United States alleged that the Stapleton Entities, under the Stapletons’ direction, used telemarketing to solicit prospective patients to accept compounded drugs regardless of patient need, procured prescriptions for those patients, and then sent those prescriptions to compounding pharmacies that agreed to pay the Stapleton Entities half of the amount TRICARE reimbursed for each prescription. The Stapletons and Stapleton Entities worked with pharmacies to identify compounded drug formulas that maximized the level of reimbursement for the drugs, regardless of the medical need for the chosen formula. They then sought to procure large volumes of prescriptions for those formulas. In many cases, the Stapleton Entities procured prescriptions by paying telemedicine providers who prescribed expensive compounded drugs without ever seeing the patients or conducting any meaningful medical examination.
“Kickback arrangements undermine confidence in our health care system,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division. “This case demonstrates how kickback schemes often result in the provision of medically unnecessary services at the taxpayer’s expense. The department is committed to holding accountable those who engage in such unlawful conduct.”
“This is another in a long line of this office’s civil and criminal prosecutions of pharmacies, marketers, and prescribers – both individual and corporate – who exploited the TRICARE program for their personal gain and at substantial expense to taxpayers,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Karin Hoppmann for the Middle District of Florida. “We will continue to use all available resources to pursue those who defraud this and other federal healthcare programs and to return monies to those programs.”
“The Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) protects the integrity of Department of Defense programs, such as TRICARE, by rooting out those who choose to divert into their own pockets American taxpayer dollars intended to support our men and women in uniform,” said Special Agent in Charge Cyndy Bruce of the DCIS Southeast Field Office. “Individuals who unjustly enrich themselves will be held accountable.”
“We are grateful to those who came forward to expose these fraudulent practices and vow to continue our efforts to protect taxpayers from fraudsters siphoning money from the nation’s health care system,” said Special Agent in Charge Michael McPherson of the FBI’s Tampa Division.
As part of the settlement, the Stapletons have agreed to pay additional amounts in the event of certain contingencies.
The civil settlement includes the resolution of claims brought under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by Dwayne Thornton against the Stapletons. Under the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of the settlement if the government takes over the case and reaches a monetary agreement with the defendant. Thornton is a former employee of one of the pharmacies to which the Stapleton Entities referred prescriptions. The share to be awarded from this settlement has not yet been determined. The qui tam case is captioned United States ex rel. Thornton v. National Compounding Co. et al., Case No. 8:15-cv-2647 (M.D. Fla.).
The resolutions obtained in this matter were the result of a coordinated effort between the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch (Fraud Section), the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida, the FBI, and DCIS.
The matter was investigated by Trial Attorney Nathan Green and Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Harden.
The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only and there has been no determination of liability.
Attachment(s):
Topic(s):
False Claims Act
Component(s):
Press Release Number:
21-228
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Vapor Cigs LLC | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | VAPE 911 LLC | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Vapor Springs LLC | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Vegas Vapor Emporium | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Revolution Vapor LLC | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Dieselbycg-Hometown Vape Lounge | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Tooters Vape Shop | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Cloudchasor LLC | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | The Philosopher's Stone, LLC | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | VapinUSA WI LLC d/b/a VapinUSA | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded |
| 03/16/2021 | 03/10/2021 | Foshan Biours Biosciences Co., Ltd. | Center for Drug Evaluation and Research | CGMP/Finished Pharmaceuticals/Adulterated | ||
| 03/16/2021 | 03/10/2021 | Dibar Nutricional S. de R.L. de C.V. | Center for Drug Evaluation and Research | CGMP/Finished Pharmaceuticals/Adulterated | ||
| 03/16/2021 | 03/11/2021 | Albek de Mexico S.A. de C.V. | Center for Drug Evaluation and Research | Finished Pharmaceuticals/Unapproved New Drug/Misbranded/Adulterated | ||
| 03/16/2021 | 03/16/2021 | Little Town Vaping d/b/a Swamp Vapor Lafayette | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/16/2021 | 03/16/2021 | Little Town Vaping d/b/a Swamp Vapor | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/16/2021 | 03/16/2021 | Little Town Vaping d/b/a Swamp Vapor New Iberia | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/15/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Ravenscroft Apothecary, Inc. DBA Ravenscroft Escentials | Center for Drug Evaluation and Research | Unapproved and Misbranded Products Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Boardwalk Elixir, LLC | Centar for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | The Clean Vape | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded | ||
| 03/12/2021 | 03/12/2021 | Blue Lab Vapors, LLC | Center for Tobacco Products | Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act/Adulterated/Misbranded |
Friday, March 12, 2021
Operator of Racehorse Doping Websites Sentenced to 18 Months in Prison Scott Robinson Also Ordered to Forfeit Over $3,000,00
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, March 9, 2021
Scott Robinson Also Ordered to Forfeit Over $3,000,000
Audrey Strauss, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that SCOTT ROBINSON was sentenced today to 18 months in prison in connection with ROBINSON’s years-long sale and distribution of adulterated and misbranded drugs, including performance-enhancing drugs marketed to racehorse trainers and others in the racehorse industry. ROBINSON pled guilty to a one-count Information on September 16, 2020, before U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken, who also imposed today’s sentence.
U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said: “Scott Robinson created and profited from a system designed to exploit racehorses in the pursuit of speed and prize money, risking their safety and wellbeing. Robinson sold unsanitary, misbranded, and adulterated drugs, and misled and deceived regulators and law enforcement in the process.”
According to the Indictment, the Superseding Information to which ROBINSON pled guilty, and other court documents, as well as statements made in public court proceedings:
From at least in or about 2011 through at least in or about March 2020, ROBINSON conspired with others to manufacture, sell, and ship millions of dollars’ worth of adulterated and misbranded equine drugs, including performance-enhancing drugs (“PEDs”) intended to be administered to racehorses for the purpose of improving those horses’ race performances in order to win races and obtain prize money. ROBINSON sold these drugs through several direct-to-consumer websites designed to appeal to racehorse trainers and owners, including, among others, “horseprerace.com.”
ROBINSON contributed to the conspiracy by, among other things, sourcing chemicals used to create custom PEDs that were advertised and sold; falsely labeling, packaging, and shipping those PEDs to customers across the country, including in the Southern District of New York; and collecting, reporting, and responding to employee and customer complaints regarding the misbranded and adulterated products advertised and sold online. Among the drugs advertised and sold during the course of the conspiracy were “blood builders,” which are used by racehorse trainers and others to increase red blood cell counts and/or the oxygenation of muscle tissue of a racehorse in order to stimulate the horse’s endurance, which enhances that horse’s performance in, and recovery from, a race, as well as customized analgesics that are used by racehorse trainers and others to deaden a horse’s nerves and block pain in order to improve a horse’s race performance. The drugs distributed through the defendant’s websites were manufactured in non-FDA registered facilities and carried significant risks to the animals affected through the administration of those illicit PEDs. For example, in 2016, ROBINSON received a complaint regarding the effect of his unregulated drugs on a customer’s horse: “starting bout 8 hours after I give the injection and for about 36 hours afterwards both my horses act like they are heavily sedated, can barely walk. Could I have a bad bottle of medicine, I’m afraid to give it anymore since this has happened three times.” Commenting on this complaint, ROBINSON wrote simply, “here is another one.”
* * *
In addition to his prison sentence, ROBINSON, 46, of Tampa, Florida, was sentenced to three years of supervised release and forfeiture of $3,832,318.90.
Ms. Strauss praised the outstanding investigative work of the New York FBI Office’s Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force and its support of the FBI’s Integrity in Sports and Gaming Initiative. Ms. Strauss also thanked the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, the New York State Police, and the New York City Police Department for their support of this investigation, and the Food and Drug Administration and the Drug Enforcement Administration for their assistance and expertise.
This case is being handled by the Office’s Money Laundering and Transnational Criminal Enterprises Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Sarah Mortazavi, Benet J. Kearney, and Andrew C. Adams are in charge of the prosecution.
Topic(s):
Drug Trafficking
Financial Fraud
Component(s):
USAO - New York, Southern
Contact:
James Margolin, Nicholas Biase (212) 637-2600
Press Release Number:
21-048
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Feds find 3 SC parties accountable for $114 million ...
https://www.live5news.com/2021/03/08/feds-find-sc-parties-accountable-million...
Mar 08, 2021 · CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - The US Attorney for the District of South Carolina says the court of appeals has affirmed their $114 million judgement against one man and two testing labs found liable for defrauding federal health care programs. Floyd Calhoun “Cal” …
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