Dehshid ‘David’ Nourian, Health Care Fraud, Texas 2024

A Texas pharmacist has been sentenced to over 17 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $405 million in assets for his role in a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor.

On February 21, Dehshid ‘David’ Nourian, 62, of Plano, was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison and ordered to pay over $115 million in restitution for his role in the scheme.

Nourian was convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, eight counts of health care fraud, one count of conspiracy to launder money, and five counts of money laundering.

The scheme involved submitting fraudulent claims for medically unnecessary compound creams to the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (DOL-OWCP).

Nourian and others owned and operated three pharmacies located in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas.

Nourian was also ordered to forfeit $405 million in assets tied to his fraud and money laundering schemes.

The scheme resulted in tens of millions of dollars in fraudulent billing to government agencies, with the pharmacies billing the DOL-OWCP and Blue Cross Blue Shield more than $145 million and being paid more than $90 million for unnecessary prescriptions.

Nourian attempted to conceal his ill-gotten gains by laundering the money through purported holding companies and attempted to evade paying $24 million in federal income taxes on the illicit proceeds.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas and investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General.

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