Army Families Ripped Off: $31M Kickback

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Robert L. Crites, 67, of Batesville, Mississippi, is on the hook for $31,039,134.82 after a federal judge found him liable for a brazen scheme to defraud TRICARE. Crites ran Health Services Plus and TriCom, LLC and worked as a contractor with Extraordinary Scripts, all to funnel patients to Cloverland Pharmacy in Montgomery, Alabama. The scheme, exposed in court records, centered on kickbacks paid for each patient referral, primarily targeting military families and veterans.

The operation wasn’t about patient care; it was about cash. Crites and his co-conspirators actively sought out TRICARE beneficiaries, then sent them to Cloverland in exchange for illegal payments. The scheme ran for an unspecified period, bleeding the military healthcare system dry. Investigators say Crites was the central figure coordinating the patient flow and collecting the dirty money.

The $31 million judgment breaks down to $16,342,424.82 in damages – triple the $5,447,474.94 TRICARE lost – plus another $14,696,710 in civil penalties. This isn’t a criminal conviction, it’s a civil judgement meaning the government pursued financial recovery rather than jail time, though criminal charges are always a possibility. Crites was the last defendant standing; five others previously settled with the feds, and additional assets were forfeited.

Federal prosecutors aren’t letting up on healthcare fraud, and this case underscores the government’s commitment to protecting programs like TRICARE from predatory schemes. The Anti-Kickback Statute makes these arrangements illegal, but as this case shows, that doesn’t always deter those looking to profit off the healthcare system.