Deepak Raheja, a 66-year-old physician from Hudson, Ohio, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison and ordered to pay $2,163,995 in restitution after pleading guilty to his role in a prescription drug kickback conspiracy. The sentencing was handed down by U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi.
According to court documents, Raheja conspired with Frank Mazzucco, Gregory Hayslette, and Bhupinder Sawhny between February 2011 and July 2016 to increase the number of prescriptions for Nuedexta, a drug used to treat pseudobulbar disorder (PBA), in exchange for kickbacks and other valuable items.
Mazzucco and Hayslette were pharmaceutical sales representatives for Avanir Pharmaceuticals, which manufactured Nuedexta. They incentivized physicians like Raheja through speaker’s bureau programs, honoraria payments, falsified sign-in sheets, and providing food and beverages to doctors and their staff.
Raheja, who joined Avanir’s speaker’s bureau in 2011, gave approximately 211 presentations and received around $331,550. During this period, he wrote approximately 10,088 Nuedexta prescriptions, the highest number in the country.
In exchange for these incentives, Raheja and Sawhny falsified patient records, diagnosing patients with PBA without proper basis and submitting false billings to Medicare and Medicaid. Mazzucco and Hayslette are scheduled for sentencing in February 2023, while Sawhny has been sentenced to three years’ probation and $40,126.22 in restitution.
This case was investigated by the FBI in Cleveland, the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Ohio Attorney General’s Healthcare Fraud Section. The prosecution was led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael L. Collyer and Megan R. Miller.
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Key Facts
- State: Ohio
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Fraud & Financial Crimes|Public Corruption
- Source: Official Source ↗
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