Baker Niazi, Unlawful Dispensing of Opioids, Texas 2018

A Houston-area pain clinic owner and a clinic employee who posed as a physician have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a 'pill mill' that illegally prescribed hundreds of thousands of doses of opioids and other controlled substances.

A Houston jury found Baker Niazi, 49, of Sugarland, Texas, and Muhammad Arif, 62, of Katy, Texas, guilty of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances.

Niazi was sentenced to 240 months in prison, while Arif received a 96-month sentence. In addition to their prison time, Niazi was ordered to pay a $500,000 fine and forfeit $493,000. Arif was also ordered to forfeit $11,423.11.

The convictions stem from a scheme in which Niazi and Arif worked together to prescribe opioids and other controlled substances at Aster Medical Clinic in Rosenberg, Texas. The clinic issued prescriptions for over 200,000 dosage units of hydrocodone and over 145,000 dosage units of carisoprodol.

The prescriptions were often issued to individuals who were not patients of the clinic, and the clinic charged approximately $250 for each visit. The scheme was uncovered by the DEA, and the case was brought as part of the Health Care Fraud Strike Force.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant Deputy Chief Aleza Remis and Trial Attorney Alexis Gregorian of the Fraud Section. The Fraud Section leads the Health Care Fraud Strike Force, which has charged over 4,200 defendants who have collectively billed the Medicare program for nearly $19 billion since its inception in 2007.

Niazi pleaded guilty in April 2018 to one count of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances. Arif was convicted at trial in August 2019 of one count of conspiracy to unlawfully distribute and dispense controlled substances and three counts of unlawfully distributing and dispensing controlled substances.

The scheme was a dangerous one, with the combination of hydrocodone and carisoprodol being a dangerous drug cocktail with no known medical benefit. The scheme was also a serious abuse of the healthcare system, with the clinic issuing unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances to over 40 people on its busiest days. The clinic charged cash for each patient visit, and 'runners' brought numerous people to pose as patients in order to obtain prescriptions for controlled substances that the crew leaders then diverted onto the black market.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/texas-clinic-owner-and-clinic-employee-sentenced-prison-conspiring-unlawfully-prescribe