Vidor Pharmacist Brian Haney Pleads Guilty to $813K Kickback Scheme

Brian David Haney, the 37-year-old partial owner of Vidor Pharmacy, copped to a federal health care fraud scheme that bled taxpayer-funded programs of over $800,000. In Austin today, Haney pleaded guilty to paying $813,560.87 in kickbacks to chiropractor Garry Wayne Craighead in exchange for patient referrals—dirty cash for prescriptions filled using federal health benefits.

Appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Lane, Haney admitted to two counts: willful offer and payment of illegal remuneration tied to federal health care programs, and filing a false Income Tax return. The scheme ran from November 30, 2011, to January 2, 2014, during which Haney funneled cash to Craighead, who controlled a network of eight Texas clinics in Dallas, Fort Worth, Killeen, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Weslaco, and Beaumont—all raking in big dollars from U.S. Department of Labor health benefits.

Haney didn’t just grease palms—he falsified records. He admitted to underreporting his income on his 2013 tax return, slashing his reported total income, adjusted gross income, and taxable income. The IRS isn’t forgiving when you lie under oath, and Haney now faces the tab: up to five years in federal prison for the bribery charge, and up to three for tax fraud.

Craighead, the man at the center of the referral web, already did his time. On December 4, 2015, he pleaded guilty to soliciting illegal kickbacks and laundering money derived from health care fraud. On June 10, 2016, he was slammed with a 14-year federal sentence and ordered to repay more than $17 million in restitution to the Department of Labor—a gut punch for a man who turned medicine into a racket.

This case wasn’t cracked by luck. It took a federal dragnet: the U.S. Postal Service OIG, U.S. Army CID’s Major Procurement Fraud Unit, the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the Department of Labor OIG all dug into the operation. Their probe exposed a pipeline where health care wasn’t about healing—it was about padding pockets.

Now, Haney waits for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks in Austin. No date’s set. But one thing’s clear: the feds are coming hard for those who exploit the system. Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Blankinship and Mark Marshall are leading the charge, and Haney’s guilty plea is just the next body in a broader crackdown on health care corruption in Texas.