Criminal Investigative Updates

Tabatha Deavers, of Charleston, West Virginia, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. According to court documents and statements made in court, Deavers and her roommate, Brittany King, unlawfully obtained the personal identification information of numerous individuals by using King’s access to local business offices as a cleaning service worker. Deavers and King rerouted the mail of their identity theft victims and opened lines of credit and bank accounts and obtained loans and credit cards in their names. Then for the next years, the defendants stole approximately $176,118 from individuals, companies, lenders, financial institutions, and car dealerships with their scheme. Deavers admitted that she and King submitted a fraudulent change of address form to the US Postal Service to reroute one victim’s mail to their Bridge Road apartment in Charleston. The VA OIG, US Postal Inspection Service, US Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office conducted this investigation.

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.

Three men were sentenced in connection to a $54 million bribery and kickback scheme involving TRICARE, a federal program that provides health insurance benefits to active duty and retired service members and their families. David Byron Copeland, of Tallahassee, Florida, was sentenced to four years and three months in prison following his conviction at trial in June for paying and receiving health care kickbacks. James Wesley Moss, of Huntsville, Alabama, and Michael Gordon, of Fort Myers, Florida, were sentenced to two years and three months and one year and six months in prison, respectively, following their guilty pleas to a kickback and fraud conspiracy, among other charges. The men engaged in a practice known as “test billing” to develop the most expensive combination of compounded drugs to maximize reimbursement from TRICARE. The VA OIG, the Department of Defense OIG, the Department of Health and Human Services OIG, and the FBI investigated the case.

Michael Darrah, a VA benefits service representative located in Providence, Rhode Island, was charged with three counts of bribery and one count each of extortion, gratuity received by a public official, and witness tampering. It is alleged that Darrah, of Taunton, Massachusetts, solicited and accepted bribes from veterans and the family member of a veteran to approve requested dependent care benefits and/or disability benefits. It is further alleged that Darrah claimed that some of the money he sought from his victims would be used to purchase gift cards for other purported VA employees who Darrah claimed either could or did assist him in expediting and approving benefits claims. After becoming aware of the government’s investigation into his conduct, Darrah allegedly attempted to persuade a witness not to cooperate with the investigation and to lie about the nature of payments made to him. This case was investigated by the VA OIG with the assistance of the FBI, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, US Postal Inspection Service, and Veterans Administration Police.

Deiby Bladimil Casado Ruiz, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of supervised release and Pedro Antonio Sanchez Bernabel, also of Lawrence, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute fentanyl to individuals at the Bedford Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Between July 2022 and November 2022, Bernabel and Casado Ruiz distributed more than 40 grams of fentanyl to individuals at the medical center, including one veteran who was seeking treatment for a substance use disorder. The VA OIG, FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Bedford VA Medical Center Police Service investigated this case.