Former Pharmacist Sentenced in Medicaid Fraud Case

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that on January 13, 2016, United States District Judge John M. Gerrard sentenced Scott Tran to 110 months incarceration followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay restitution in the amount of $14,430,059.17 to the Nebraska Health and Human Services Agency, for the crime of health care fraud.  Tran, 45 years old from Omaha, was indicted by a federal grand jury May 19, 2014, charged with the largest health care fraud crime in Nebraska to date, including 12 counts of health care fraud and six counts of identity theft.  Tran pled guilty to health care fraud on September 29, 2015.  Tran operated a pharmacy, Pharmacy Specialty Services, in Lincoln and during a nearly six year period between May 2009 and March 2015 he submitted 2,346 false claims to Nebraska Medicaid for dispensing a prescription drug – tobramycin solution for inhalation (TOBI) – which he in fact did not dispense.  He was paid a total of $14,430,059.17 by Nebraska Medicaid on these claims.  According to Tran, the money was primarily used by him to support his gambling habit.

Investigators have seized money and other assets from Tran to be used for restitution, including more than $2.1 million in cash, a house in Waterloo, NE, valued at more than $800,000, a car, a boat and trailer.  The case was investigated by agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Office of Investigations of the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office, and the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.