A federal jury convicted three Texas men for a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor through fraudulent claims for prescription compound creams. According to evidence presented at trial, Dehshid “David” Nourian, of Plano; Texas, and Christopher Rydberg, of Fort Worth, Texas, and others conspired to pay Dr. Michael Taba, of McKinney, Texas, and other doctors to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured federal workers. Nourian and Rydberg owned and/or operated three pharmacies located in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas. They paid Taba for referring expensive compound medications to be filled by those pharmacies. In less than three years, the pharmacies billed the Department of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs and Blue Cross Blue Shield more than $145 million and were paid more than $90 million for unnecessary prescriptions referred by Taba and other providers in exchange for bribes and kickbacks. Nourian, Rydberg, and others then attempted to conceal their ill-gotten gains by laundering the money through purported holding companies and attempted to evade paying federal income taxes on the illicit proceeds. The VA OIG, USPS-OIG, DOL OIG, and IRS Criminal Investigations investigated the case.
