A 13-count indictment was unsealed charging two pharmacists and a physician for their roles in a multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud, kickback and money laundering scheme. According to court documents, Shalondria Simpson, 45, Houston, is a pharmacist who owned and operated two pharmacies in Houston: Advance Pharmacy and TruCare Pharmacy. Simpson’s twin sister, physician Lashondria Simpson-Camp, 45, Allen, allegedly referred prescriptions to Advance and TruCare in exchange for illegal kickbacks and bribes. Shayla Bryant, 38, Houston, was a pharmacist and Advance and TruCare’s business manager.
Between 2016 and 2022, Simpson, Simpson-Camp and Bryant allegedly conspired with others to submit false and fraudulent claims to the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Program (DOL-OWCP) for high reimbursing drugs that were often medically unnecessary and induced by kickbacks and bribes. DOL-OWCP administers workers’ compensation benefits on behalf of the Federal Employee’s Compensation Act (FECA), Further, Simpson, Simpson-Camp, Bryant and others allegedly conspired to pay and receive these kickbacks. Simpson and Bryan allegedly paid illegal kickbacks and bribes, often through shell entities or in cash, directly to physicians like Simpson-Camp, a clinic owner, a medical assistant and other marketers. In total, Simpson’s pharmacies allegedly submitted approximately $170 million in fraudulent claims to FECA through DOL-OWCP.
