LOS ANGELES
A Calabasas physician was sentenced Friday to 14 months in federal prison for accepting nearly $800,000 in bribes and kickbacks, prosecutors stated.
The bribery conspiracy unlawfully billed health insurers for compounded medication prescriptions, officials stated.
U.S. District Judge John F. Walter sentenced Dr. Amir Friedman, 56.
Friedman plead guilty in October 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit honest services mail and wire fraud, and to violate the Travel Act, a federal law that – among other things – forbids the use of the U.S. mail for the purpose of aiding bribery.
Friedman, a licensed anesthesiologist, violated the fiduciary duty he owed to his patients by accepting kickbacks and bribes for writing prescriptions for compounded medications for his patients.
Compounded drugs are tailor-made products doctors may prescribe when the Food and Drug Administration-approved alternative does not meet the health needs of a patient.
From August 2013 to May 2015, Friedman conspired with New Age Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Beverly Hills-based company, and a marketer – listed in court documents as “Marketer A” – to violate federal law, according to authorities.
Insurance companies under the California Workers’ Compensation System reimbursed New Age for dispensing prescription drugs and other pharmaceuticals. Marketer A was paid commissions for facilitating the referral of compounded drug prescriptions.
Marketer A provided pre-printed prescription pads for compounded drugs to Friedman and offered Friedman kickbacks and bribes for each prescription he wrote.
After Friedman wrote the kickback-tainted prescriptions, New Age dispensed the compounded drugs, billed insurance companies for reimbursement and shipped through the mail the compounded drugs to patients, officials stated.
In total, Friedman accepted $788,140 in kickbacks and bribes – a sum he received in the form of about 28 check payments that represented illicit proceeds from the conspiracy.
He admitted in his plea agreement that he was aware that the compounded drugs he prescribed were far more expensive than equivalents, prosecutors stated.
The FBI investigated this matter.