A massive healthcare fraud scheme involving a doctor in Allen and two pharmacists in Houston was allegedly uncovered, resulting in multiple indictments earlier this month.
The scheme, which allegedly involved kickbacks and money laundering, ran from 2016 to 2022 and racked up around $170 million in ill-gotten gains.
As announced by a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, three individuals were indicted on federal charges on September 7:
- Houston resident Shalondria Simpson, 45, owner-operator of two pharmacies — Advance Pharmacy and TruCare Pharmacy.
- Houston resident Shayla Bryant, 38, pharmacist and business manager for Advance Pharmacy and TruCare Pharmacy.
- Allen resident Dr. Lashondria Simpson-Camp, 45, Simpson’s twin sister and owner of Richardson-based Accuhealth Injury and Wellness, which has locations in Houston, Fort Worth, and Beaumont.
The scheme allegedly preyed upon the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Program. The pharmacies under scrutiny billed approximately $170 million for prescription drugs, receiving $53 million from the federal program, according to The Dallas Morning News.
Pre-printed prescription pads for drugs with high reimbursement rates were allegedly prepared and issued, irrespective of the claimants’ medical needs.
Simpson and Bryant face additional counts of paying healthcare kickbacks, while Simpson has been accused of several counts of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and money laundering.
Simpson faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for conspiracy to launder money instruments and 10 years for each count of money laundering. Such activities allegedly involved the use of shell companies, cash, and even a cryptocurrency wallet, according to the press release.
Authorities also suggested that once Simpson became aware of the investigation, she attempted to launder the proceeds through transactions exceeding $10,000 to conceal the illicit scheme.
As reported by The Dallas Express earlier this year, a similar scheme involving two nurses and co-owners of a healthcare company in the Houston area were sentenced to jail time and ordered to pay a combined sum of over $1.4 million in restitution to Medicare.
Dallas has also been rife with all types of fraudsters.
For instance, in August, Michael Anthony Munson, 47, was sentenced to more than one year in prison after pleading guilty to scamming a U.S. government agency out of $2.3 million in a food service scheme, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
His “Heloise Munson Foundation” claimed to have provided more than 2.4 million meals to needy children between 2008 and 2014, but it actually provided fewer than one million.
As of September 28, there have been more than 1,796 reports of counterfeiting, forgery, and fraud offenses logged citywide, according to the City of Dallas Open Data crime overview dashboard.
The Dallas Police Department’s efforts to combat and investigate crimes like these have been hindered by a lack of staff. An analysis completed in 2015 determined that a city the size of Dallas needs roughly 4,000 police officers, but DPD currently only employs fewer than 3,200.
