AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - Federal prosecutors say the part-owner of a Southeast Texas pharmacy has pleaded guilty to federal bribery and tax charges in a health care kickbacks scheme.
With his plea before a federal judge in Austin, 37-year-old Brian David Haney admits paying more than $800,000 to the owner of a chain of clinics who referred patients to his Vidor pharmacy for drugs.
The clinic owner, chiropractor Garry Wayne Craighead, was sentenced earlier this year to 14 years in prison and must repay nearly $18 million to the government.
Craighead had clinics in Dallas, Fort Worth, Killeen, Austin, San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Weslaco and Beaumont and mainly treated U.S. Postal Service workers.
Haney faces up to five years in prison for the bribery charge and up to three years for the tax charge.
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