Two Sentenced, Another Pleads Guilty in Health Care Fraud Scheme involving Prescription Pills

PITTSBURGH - United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today a guilty plea and two sentencings in connection with related Heath Care Fraud and prescription pill distribution cases.

United States District Judge Mark R. Hornak imposed the sentences of 15 months and 13 months of incarceration, respectively, on Jennifer Troy, age 41, of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, and James Roberson, age 62, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Troy was convicted of a charge of Conspiracy to Distribute Oxycodone and Oxymorphone, and Roberson was convicted of a charge of Conspiracy to Distribute Oxycodone and Oxymorphone and a charge of Health Care Fraud. Judge Hornak also accepted the guilty plea of Antoinette Adair, age 49, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to one count of Health Care Fraud, one count of Conspiracy to Distribute Oxycodone and Oxymorphone, and eight counts of Possession with the Intent to Distribute and Distribution of Oxycodone and Oxymorphone.

According to information presented to the court, Adair, Troy and Roberson were all part of the same group of individuals involved in a large-scale Health Care Fraud and pill distribution network. As part of the criminal enterprise, Adair, Roberson and other obtained powerful and addictive prescription pain medication through physicians under the false pretense that they intended to use that medication themselves. In fact, they intended to sell the medication for profit to individuals addicted to those medications. Additionally, medication was often paid for through taxpayer-funded health care insurance programs. Thus, the taxpayers ended paying for much of the prescription medications that these conspirators sold.

Another source of supply for the pills distributed through this network was a pill supplier from the Detroit area named Kavon Dawkins. Troy’s role in the conspiracy involved, among other things, traveling to the Detroit area with her sister, Jaqueline Bauer, for the purposes of transporting large quantities of pills to the Pittsburgh area for distribution on behalf of Dawkins. Both Bauer and Dawkins have pleaded guilty to their roles in the distribution network and are awaiting sentencing.

A total of 18 individuals have been indicted in connection with this health care fraud and pill distribution conspiracy. Ten of those individuals have pleaded guilty, with two others scheduled to plead guilty shortly.

Assistant United States Attorney Brendan T. Conway is prosecuting these cases on behalf of the government.

United States Attorney Brady commended the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of these defendants.