LOS ANGELES
A federal judge sentence a Los Angeles pharmacist to 18 months in prison for Medicare prescription drug fraud
Rouzbeh Javaherian, 35, of Beverly Grove, California, plead guilty on March 16.
In addition to imposing the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen V. Wilson ordered Javaherian to pay $644,060 in restitution to Medicare.
Javaherian was a licensed pharmacist and owner of Emoonah Inc., doing business as Westaid Pharmacy and Medical Supply (Westaid), which was located in Los Angeles.
His plea agreement states that from January 2008 to November 2014, Javaherian concocted a scheme to defraud the Medicare by paying illegal cash kickbacks to Medicare beneficiaries to induce them to submit their prescriptions to Westaid.
Javaherian then filled some of those prescriptions, but also submitted false and fraudulent claims to Medicare that he did not actually fill. Javaherian received approximately $644,060 in overpayments from Medicare as the result of the fraud scheme.
The case was investigated by the FBI.