Pharr pharmacist, associates sentenced for $110M kickback scheme

The owner of a pharmacy in Pharr and three others involved in a $110 million kickback scheme have been sentenced.

John Aguedo Rodriguez, 55, the owner of Pharr Family Pharmacy; Alex Flores Jr., 55; Hector De La Cruz Jr., 54, who operated Flores & De La Cruz Financial Solutions, LLC; and Mohammad Imtiaz Chowdhury, 44, were sentenced Thursday for their roles in a conspiracy to pay kickbacks in exchange for prescription referrals, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced in a news release.

Rodriguez was sentenced to five years in prison while Flores and De La Cruz were given nearly four years.

Mohammad Imtiaz Chowdhury, who owned the Center for Pain Management in Edinburg, was sentenced to over two years in prison.

He had pleaded guilty earlier this year alongside his father, 75-year-old Dr. Tajul Shams Chowdhury.

All four men will also serve three years of supervised release following the completion of their sentences, according to the release.

Rodriguez was a licensed pharmacist who recruited Flores, De La Cruz and Mohammad Imtiaz Chowdhury in order to pay kickbacks to medical providers who referred prescriptions to his pharmacy.

“Rodriguez then billed various benefit programs, including the Department of Labor, TRICARE and Medicare, for millions of dollars in claims,” the release said. “From 2014 to 2016, his pharmacy submitted more than $110 million in claims to federal health care programs for compound drugs.”

According to the indictment, Mohammad Imtiaz Chowdhury directed two of his employees, Araceli Gaona and Erika Salinas Vazquez, to send prescriptions for compound drugs and other items to Pharr Family Pharmacy for patients.

Those two women and Tajul Shams Chowdhury were sentenced to time served with three years of supervised release, court records show.

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