Fort Worth pharmacy owner convicted of laundering money & paying illegal kickbacks: feds
A Fort Worth pharmacy owner was found guilty Thursday of paying illegal marketing kickbacks and money laundering, officials said.
Richard Hall, 53, was co-owner of Rxpress Pharmacy and Express Compounding, located at 1000 W. Weatherford St. He was arrested in December 2019 along with seven other pharmacy owners and marketers.
Hall paid marketers to recruit area doctors to prescribe expensive compounded medications for TRICARE patients, according to a U.S. Department of Justice press release. TRICARE is a federally funded insurance program for service members and their families.
So-called “investment opportunities” allowed these doctors to profit financially from the pharmacy operations, according to court documents and trial evidence, the release said. Hall paid illegal kickbacks to the marketers and conspired to launder the proceeds.
The jury convicted Hall of one count of money laundering and four counts of paying and receiving unlawful kickbacks, according to the release. Each kickback count carries a maximum of five years in prison, and the money laundering count carries a maximum of 10 years.
In total, Hall could face up to 30 years in prison. His sentencing date hasn’t yet been scheduled.
