LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - A Lincoln pharmacist who pleaded guilty to defrauding Nebraska’s Medicaid program out of $14.4 million has been sentenced to more than nine years in prison.
Prosecutors say 45-year-old Scott Tran submitted hundreds of false claims for a solution used in inhalers for cystic fibrosis patients in the names of his customers’ children.
Documents show Tran submitted 399 claims for reimbursement between May 2009 and February 2015, stating they had been ordered by six Lincoln-area doctors identified only by their initials.
United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Tran to 110 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Tran was also ordered to pay more than $14.4 million in restitution to the Nebraska Health and Human Services Agency.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Everett had said he would dismiss 17 other counts against Tran if he pleaded guilty to one count of health care fraud.
Tran has agreed to forfeit his right to cash and property that was seized early in the investigation to go toward paying restitution. Everett has said that the government could recoup just under $3 million from the sale of Tran’s Omaha home, Lincoln pharmacy, bank accounts, life insurance policies and stocks.
Tran operated Pharmacy Specialty Services in Lincoln for nearly six years between May 2009 and March 2015.
Defense attorney Clarence Mock said Tran suffered from a gambling addiction. Mock said that most of the money that Tran received from filing false claims was spent gambling at two casinos in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
U.S. District Judge John Gerrard said Tran’s case was highly unusual and that a gambling addiction was certainly an explanation for what was otherwise virtually unexplainable to people who knew him.
“Nonetheless, an addiction like this, not unlike an alcohol or drug addiction that I see too often in my court, does not excuse your behavior, and it will not minimize your sentence,” Gerrard said.
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