Elizabeth Peters Young, Healthcare Kickback Scheme, GA 2024

Elizabeth Peters Young, 55, of Ball Ground, Georgia, is headed to federal prison for 57 months after masterminding a sprawling healthcare kickback scheme that bled over $1.5 million from the Federal Worker’s Compensation program. The verdict, handed down by District Court Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz in Miami, marks the end of a years-long fraud that exploited loopholes in a system meant to protect injured federal employees.

Young, a longtime medical device sales rep and business owner, was convicted on December 19, 2019, by a Fort Lauderdale jury on one count of conspiracy to pay and receive healthcare kickbacks and four counts of paying illegal kickbacks tied to a federal healthcare program (Case No. 19-CR-60157-RAR). The trial unveiled a calculated operation that ran from March 2015 through April 2018, during which Young exploited reimbursement policies for high-cost pain creams—Terocin and Lidopro—products nearly identical to everyday counter treatments like Icy Hot.

Young struck deals with two pharmacies, including a strip mall operation, to split 50% of the illicit proceeds generated from billing the federal program. She then used a medical assistant—friend and employee of a spinal surgeon—to write prescriptions for the creams and route them to the complicit pharmacies. In return, Young funneled over $1.5 million in fraudulently obtained federal funds into her accounts, all while knowing the referrals were illegal.

To hide the payments to the medical assistant, Young created a sham employment arrangement with the assistant’s boyfriend—a Home Depot worker recovering from brain injuries sustained in a car crash. She paid him over $300,000 in so-called “commissions” for pitching the creams to the very doctor he had no connection to. Prosecutors proved at trial that the man was expected to “sit back and collect,” with no real work performed.

Young wasn’t naive to the risks. Evidence showed she repeatedly searched online for stories about FBI raids, pharmacy fraud, and doctors arrested for kickbacks. She emailed articles to co-conspirators with subject lines like “FBI, Scary.” She also instructed associates to open shell companies, scrub names from bank accounts, and avoid discussing the creams with others in the medical field—classic signs of a scheme built on deception.

U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan, along with Rafiq Ahmad of the DOL-OIG and Scott Pierce of the USPS-OIG, announced the sentencing. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Anne P. McNamara and David Turken prosecuted the case, while AUSA Adrienne Rosen handled asset forfeiture. Young was also ordered to pay restitution, forfeiture, and a special assessment, with exact amounts to be determined at a later hearing. She now faces three years of supervised release upon her release from prison.