The chief executive officer of a Michigan and Ohio-based group of pain clinics and other medical providers was sentenced to 15 years in prison for developing and approving a corporate policy to administer unnecessary back injections to patients in exchange for prescriptions of over 6.6 million doses of medically unnecessary opioids. Mashiyat Rashid, 40, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, was the CEO of the Tri-County Wellness Group of medical providers in Michigan and Ohio. In addition to the prison sentence, Rashid was also ordered to pay over $51 million in restitution to Medicare, as well as forfeiture to the United States of property traceable to proceeds of the healthcare fraud scheme, including over $11.5 million, commercial real estate, residential real estate, and a Detroit Pistons season ticket membership. Rashid pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and wire fraud, and one count of money laundering. Twenty-one other defendants, including 12 physicians, have been convicted thus far, including four physicians who were convicted after a one-month trial in 2020. Rashid is the second defendant to be sentenced.
