A Texas anesthesiologist at the heart of a $200 million healthcare fraud scheme has been sentenced to 66 months in federal prison. Dr. Richard Ferdinand Toussaint, Jr., 61, pleaded guilty in March 2018 to conspiracy to pay healthcare bribes and kickbacks and one count of illegal remuneration under the Travel Act. U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox announced the sentence, which includes over $82.9 million in restitution.
Toussaint, already serving a 41-month federal sentence for a separate healthcare fraud conviction, will serve the 66-month term concurrently. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary. He is one of 18 defendants convicted in the sprawling Forest Park Medical Center fraud case, a scheme that exploited out-of-network billing and patient referrals for massive profit.
According to plea documents, Toussaint partnered with bariatric surgeon Dr. Wade Neal Barker and hospital manager Alan Andrew Beauchamp to launch Forest Park Medical Center in 2008. The facility, marketed as a specialty center for bariatric and spinal surgeries, became a hub for illegal kickbacks. Surgeons were paid for steering high-reimbursing, privately insured patients to the hospital, with payouts disguised as consulting fees or “marketing money.”
Kickbacks totaled more than $40 million and were calculated as a percentage of referred surgeries. Internal emails revealed Toussaint and Barker were actively updated on referral payouts, exposing a coordinated, top-down scheme. To lure patients, Forest Park waived co-insurance fees and promised in-network pricing—knowing insurers would never honor such rates. The uncollected amounts were falsely recorded as “bad debt.”
Among those who pleaded guilty before trial were Kelly Wade Loter, David Daesung Kim, Israel Ortiz, Andrea Kay Smith, Frank Gonzales, Jr., Andrew Jonathan Hillman, and Semyon Narosov. Those convicted at trial include Wilton McPherson “Mac” Burt, Jackson Jacob, Douglas Sung Won, Michael Bassem Rimlawi, Shawn Mark Henry, Mrugeshkumar Shah, and Iris Kathleen Forrest.
The case was investigated by a joint task force including the U.S. Office of Personnel Management OIG, FBI, U.S. Department of Labor OIG, Employee Benefits Security Administration, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, IRS Criminal Investigation, and FDA Office of Criminal Investigations. Prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Wirmani, Marcus Busch, Mark Tindall, and Gail Hayworth.
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Key Facts
- State: Texas
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes
- Source: Official Source ↗
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