Tarek Fakhuri of Ontario among 4 pharmacy owners convicted of $13M fraud scheme in U.S.

A federal jury have convicted four pharmacy owners for conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Raef Hamaed, of Maricopa County, Arizona; Kindy Ghussin, of Greene County, Ohio; Ali Abdelrazzaq, of Macomb County, Michigan; and Tarek Fakhuri, of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, all licensed pharmacists, billed Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for prescription medications that they did not dispense at pharmacies they owned in Michigan and Ohio. The defendants collectively caused over $13 million of loss to Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Hamaed, Ghussin, Abdelrazzaq, and Fakhuri were convicted of conspiracy to commit health care and wire fraud. Abdelrazzaq was also convicted of two counts of health care fraud and Fakhuri was convicted of one count of health care fraud. Sentencing hearings will be set at a later date.

The four face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison on the conspiracy count, and Abdelrazzaq and Fakhuri face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each health care fraud count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, according to a press release by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The FBI Detroit Field Office and the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) investigated the case.

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