A 13-count indictment was unsealed, charging two pharmacists and a physician for their roles in a multimillion-dollar health care fraud, kickback, and money laundering scheme. According to court documents, Shalondria Simpson, 45, of Houston, is a pharmacist who owned and operated two pharmacies in Houston: Advance Pharmacy (Advance) and TruCare Pharmacy (TruCare). Simpson’s twin sister, physician Lashondria Simpson-Camp, 45, of Allen, Texas, allegedly referred prescriptions to Advance and TruCare in exchange for illegal kickbacks and bribes. Shayla Bryant, 38, of Houston, was a pharmacist and Advance and TruCare’s business manager, the Department of Justice reports. 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), which administered workers’ compensation benefits on behalf of the Federal Employee’s Compensation Act (FECA), for high reimbursing drugs that were often medically unnecessary and induced by kickbacks and bribes.
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.
To conceal the scheme and disguise its proceeds, Simpson also allegedly conspired to launder the proceeds of the criminal activity through financial transactions greater than $10,000. According to the indictment, after learning of the investigation, Simpson attempted to cover her tracks by converting criminal proceeds to cash, and transferring funds among over ten bank accounts and a cryptocurrency wallet. She also allegedly solicited others’ help in liquidating assets and concealing her ownership and control of those assets.