Texas Trio Convicted in $145 Million Fraudulent Claims Scheme

A federal jury convicted three Texas men for their roles in a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor through the submission of fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary prescription compound creams.

The Texas trio—Dehshid “David” Nourian and Christopher Rydberg, both pharmacy owners, and Michael Taba, an Orthopedic surgeon—were found guilty of health-care fraud and money laundering for orchestrating a scheme in which Taba and other physicians were paid to funnel referrals for expensive prescriptions to pharmacies owned by Nourian and Rydberg, the Justice Department said Friday.

From May 2014 through March 2017, the group billed the Department of ...