McAllen pharmacist admits to $24M-plus kickback scheme

A McAllen pharmacist pleaded guilty to conspiring to pay kickbacks in excess of $24 million in exchange for prescription referrals, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced in a news release.

John Ageudo Rodriguez, 55, who owned and operated the Pharr Family Pharmacy, or PFP, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to defraud the United States, according to court documents.

His plea comes after his co-defendants 75-year-old Dr. Tajul Shams Chowdhury and his son 43-year-old Mohammad Imtiaz Chowdhury pleaded guilty Monday.

“Rodriguez admitted he paid kickbacks in excess of $24 million to various marketers,” the release said. “The marketers had relationships with physicians and clinics and could cause prescriptions for expensive compound drugs to be referred to Rodriguez’s pharmacy.”

From May 2014 through September 2016, Rodriguez recruited people as “marketers” in order to induce referrals of prescriptions for compound drugs and other prescription items to PFP which could be billed to healthcare benefit programs, according to the indictment.

Rodriguez submitted claims to FECA, TRICARE and Medicare which resulted in payments from these programs totaling approximately $55 million, according to the indictment.

Mohammad Chowdhury who owned the Center for Pain Management in Edinburg and acted as one of these purported marketers for Rodriguez, including licensed chiropractors Alex Flores Jr. and Hector De La Cruz Jr., who operated Flores & De La Cruz Financial Solutions, LLC.

Two others only identified as V.G. and J.Y. also acted as marketers, according to the indictment.

“(Rodriguez) directed the purported marketers to target specific health care benefit programs that paid high reimbursements for compound drugs, including but not limited to compound pain creams, scar creams, vitamins, and other prescription items, such as pain patches,” the indictment stated.

A previous news release stated that Mohammad Chowdhury was paid $6.6 million in kickbacks as part of the scheme.

Rodriguez is currently facing up to five years in federal prison as well as a possible $250,000 fine.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on March 25.

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