A pharmacy employee was charged for conspiring to offer and pay bribes and kickbacks in exchange for having prescriptions steered to the Morris County, New Jersey, pharmacy where he worked. Srinivasa Raju, 49, of Haskell, New Jersey, was arrested and charged by complaint with conspiring to violate the Anti-Kickback Statute. Magdalena Jimenez, 56, of Newark, New Jersey, was previously charged with a parallel bribery and kickback scheme involving the same pharmacy. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: Raju had various responsibilities at the Morris County pharmacy, including coordinating prescription deliveries and soliciting business.
From at least January 2019, Raju worked with other pharmacy personnel to pay kickbacks and bribes to a doctor’s employee in exchange for receiving numerous prescriptions from that doctor’s Jersey City office. Raju first paid the kickbacks and bribes using gift cards, but soon switched to cash and checks. He typically handed the kickbacks and bribes to coworkers inside the pharmacy and directed them to deliver the payments to the doctor’s employee. To conceal the true nature of some of the illicit payments, Raju had approximately $8,000 worth of checks made out to the employee’s relative, under the guise of paying for IT services. In truth, Raju never met or communicated with the relative, and no actual services were performed.
