Texas Pharmaceutical Marketer Sentenced for $59 Million Medications Fraud Conspiracy

On July 12, Quintan Cockerell, a Texas pharmaceutical marketer, was sentenced to over two years in prison and ordered to pay more than $59 million for receiving illegal kickbacks in exchange for prescription referrals for compounded medications intended to be made specific for individual patient needs.

According to court documents, Cockerell worked with co-conspirators to defraud the United States by creating and marketing expensive compounded medications that were not medically necessary. Court documents and evidence presented at trial demonstrated that Cockerell used preloaded prescription pads and “standing orders” for doctors to easily select expensive compounded medications. The pharmacy could then switch ingredients in the medications actually prescribed by doctors to maximum insurance reimbursements. According to the government, Cockerell recruited doctors to invest in the compounded medications so they could profit from the pharmacy operations. Trial evidence also…