Photo: Getty Images
LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Beverly Hills man faces sentencing in February for his role in a $723,000 health care fraud and prescription drug diversion scheme involving two local pharmacies.
Shahriar "Michael" Kalantari, 55, generated false prescriptions as part of the scheme, while associates obtained beneficiary information which the defendant used to write phony prescriptions for expensive medication, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Kalantari's co-conspirator then submitted claims to Medicare and Medicaid of California through her two pharmacies for the drugs, which were never dispensed to the beneficiaries, but rather provided to co-conspirators to sell on the black market.
Kalantari was convicted Tuesday in Los Angeles of federal counts of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud, and conspiracy to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs, the DOJ said.
When sentenced on Feb. 24, he faces a penalty of up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the health care fraud conspiracy and health care fraud counts, and a maximum of five years for the unlicensed distribution counts, prosecutors noted.
In a separate trial, Irina Sadovsky, 53, of Calabasas, the owner and pharmacist-in-charge of two Van Nuys pharmacies, was found guilty last month of two conspiracy counts. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 3 in downtown Los Angeles.