Bolton man indicted, Gluckstadt pharmacy linked
The Justice Department issued the following statement.
An indictment against three individuals for their alleged involvement in various schemes to defraud Medicare, TRICARE, and private insurance companies, and their conspiracy to launder the proceeds has been unsealed today. The conduct allegedly resulted in more than $180 million in fraudulent billings.
Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst of the Southern District of Mississippi, Special Agent in Charge Michelle Sutphin of the FBI’s Jackson Field Office, and Special Agent in Charge Cyndy Bruce of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) Southeast Field Office made the announcement.
Mitchell “Chad” Barrett, 54, of Gulf Breeze, Florida, David “Jason” Rutland, 41, of Bolton, Mississippi, and Thomas “Tommy” Shoemaker, 56, of Rayville, Louisiana were charged on May 27, 2020, in the Southern District of Mississippi.
The indictment alleges that between September 2011 and January 2016, Barrett, Rutland, and Shoemaker conspired to and engaged in a scheme to defraud numerous health care benefit programs of more than $180 million, including more than $50 million from federal healthcare programs. Using several pharmacies, including Gluckstadt Special Care Pharmacy and Compounding LLC, World Health Industries Inc., Opus Rx LLC, and Rx Pro Pharmacy and Compounding LLC, the defendants, as alleged, fraudulently formulated, dispensed, shipped, and billed insurance companies for compound medications in the form of topical creams and capsules, some of which contained controlled substances.
To further facilitate their scheme to defraud health care benefit programs, the defendants allegedly conspired to and engaged in a scheme to solicit and pay kickbacks and bribes to marketers, physicians, other medical providers, and beneficiaries to refer, prescribe, and receive prescriptions for medically unnecessary compound medications. The defendants also allegedly conspired to and engaged in a scheme to launder the proceeds of their fraudulent activity by concealing the proceeds they obtained and conducting monetary transactions of a value greater than $10,000, including the purchase of numerous assets, such as real estate, luxury automobiles, a three-carat diamond, and other high-priced goods.
The charges announced today target alleged schemes billing Medicare, TRICARE (a health insurance program for members and veterans of the armed forces and their families) and private insurance companies for medically unnecessary compounded medications.
The charges and allegations contained in the indictments are merely accusations. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
This case is being investigated by the FBI, DCIS, and IRS-CI. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service and Office of Personnel Management’s Office of Inspector General also assisted with the case. Trial Attorneys Emily Cohen, Amanda Wick, and Steven Brantley of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathlyn Van Buskirk of the Southern District of Mississippi are prosecuting the case with the support and assistance of Trial Attorney Dustin Davis of the Fraud Section.
The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of the Department of Justice. Learn more about the history of our agency at www.Justice.gov/
33 comments:
So...who owns the Gluckstadt pharmacy?
Mississippi is a federal investigator's dream world....and they're finding out about just how much gold is being (and has been) looted....the next decade could decimate Mississippi with how much federal fraud they uncover....and how non-existent any state level oversight there is, if any.
@6:29 AM - According to the MS Sec. of State - Rutland and Barrett.
I think Rutland and a partner had Gluckstadt and Rx Pro.
Way to much of this going on nationwide I'm sure. Need to nail them all to a cross on the way to Rome, as they say.
Why is it that when white folks steal $180 million taxpayer dollars its called white collar crime. But when black folks snag some Air Jordans, Gucci bags, or iPhones it is "looting" and people boast about wanting to shoot them?
@7:39 AM
But I thought all of the good honest church going white Conservatives of Mississippi were better stewards of public trust than the liberal Democrat leaders in Chicago, Newark, Sacramento, etc., etc..
lamat adams with a ponzi scam, cris apps with a prison scam, the new family with the DHS scam, and a million more i cant even remember..............now these guys. proving once again that mississippi is the fraud capitol of the world....................its had to believe there is any money left to steal.
8:47, I'd like to see these guys shot as well. They just don't perform their crimes in front of a wide audience so it's tough to see while in progress. Don't pretend that anybody likes them any better.
When did Gluckstadt get a pharmacy and where is it?
Chad and Rutland have been hiding cash for the last 5 years all over the world.
Where are the Walters in all this?
Why is it that when ...
Looting as a term is, and has been, used with white collar crime for longer than you've been on the planet. Efforts to introduce an element of race at every opportunity betrays your weak argumentative position.
Lots of Mississippi bashing here on this site today - totally ignoring that only one of the folks indicted was from MS, that only one of the pharmacies involved was a MS pharmacy and ignoring that this is a nationwide fraud scheme. Has ties from Florida to California. Yes, there have been plenty of previous indictments of folks in Hattiesburg and the coast that were involved in the same or at least a similar scheme - still to be shown whether that bunch was connected to this bunch.
BUT - what do they all have in common (besides the fact that the scheme was operating during the 2011 - 2016 years, which kinda blows those arguing about the party that was in charge of this FEDERAL scheme)?
The investigation and indictments are coming out of Mississippi's US Attorney. Not the one that was in charge during the years that this scheme made millions in profits through bilking the federal programs, but the current one that is willing to kick ass and take names when people break the law.
And - to 8:47 - white collar crime is stealing from the government through back channels; looting is breaking the windows, carrying out TVs and AirJordans by the armloads, all while burning down the buildings after they spray-painted them.
Yes, these crooks 'looted' the insurance companies, but they did it through paperwork scams - not by physically taking the money out of the cash register, beating the owner of the business to a pulp, and carting away all the Rolexes. There is a difference - and its not in the pigment of the skin of those doing the looting.
@10:01-it’s been going on a lot longer than 5 years. Was about 5 years ago all those compounding pharmacies were raided by the feds bringing all this down.
8:58 "But I thought all of the good honest church going white Conservatives of Mississippi were better stewards of public trust than the liberal Democrat leaders in Chicago, Newark, Sacramento, etc., etc.. "
Your statement is conflating (what you believe to be) good honest church going white Conservatives of Mississippi with liberal Democratic LEADERS. LEADERS being the key word here. Don't see where these three profess to be LEADERS.
Barrett is originally from Vicksburg.
"Yes, these crooks 'looted' the insurance companies, but they did it through paperwork scams - not by physically taking the money out of the cash register, beating the owner of the business to a pulp, and carting away all the Rolexes."
Sorry, there is no difference - stealing is stealing. Common criminals.
One takes more intelligence - granted, but that actually makes it a worse crime because they truly knew what they were doing, and did it anyway. A lack of education, intelligence, or social upbringing can often (not excuse) but explain street crimes.
There should be zero distinction in how much justice one can "afford"...that is why there should be a deep criminal justice overhaul....starting with the lawyers and judges who are thick as the thieves they represent.
We should never hear or see the likes of Lamar Adams, Dickie Scruggs, etc. and many more Oxford cult followers again after what they pulled....but they are, or will be out soon enough. A black man would be lost forever for bringing a cell phone into a facility.
Ok, but for murder, most of the time, the victim probably recovers from violent crime. The injury heals although psychological scars remain.
WHite collar crime is in some ways more devastating. Suppose as is often, the victim is elderly or close to retirement. Someone embezzled their life savings. Now the victim is destitute and can't provide for himself the way he once could. He doesn't recover from his loss. A whole life is literally taken away from him.
To piggyback on KF's post, you don't often hear about suicides being committed after burglary's, because generally insurance replaces that stuff. However, you get the occasional suicide when someone has been swindle out of their life's work. However, I do not condone either style of crime.
Exactly KF....economic assassination. That's how Mississippians are controlled for the most part....the simple fear of the loss of their livelihood because of not knowing the "right" people.
I went to high school with Wade Walters and Chad Barrett. Both arrogant assholes back then... I see it continued.
Reminds me of 1966, or thereabouts, when medicare was first introduced and every pharmacist in Mississippi hired a college girl to help him manage (cook) the books and rake in millions. Prove me wrong.
Tricare is mostly for veterans. This is sickening.
I get the point y'all are making that long-distance theft has real-life impacts on people. That said, face-to-face robbery, burglary of an occupied dwelling, etc., carry much greater risk of physical violence, which is why they are classified as violent crimes. Violent crimes are generally, and should be, punished more severely than crimes that aren't likely to involve person-to-person conflict.
Please note that I'm not defending light sentences for people who destroy lives through "white collar" financial crime. Those people need to be removed from society, sometimes permanently, just like car-jackers need to be removed from society, but they are not the same thing.
In response to 8:47, I believe the term "white collar" refers to the shirt people most often used to with neckties to work, not their race. Also, I think people boast about wanting to shoot "looters" to score political points, or to convince themselves they are somehow immune to property crime because they are such toughguys. Either way, I don't think the law allows the use of deadly force solely to protect personal property, Castle Doctrines notwithstanding.
@8:47 - so, is your only complaint what they call it -- "looting" vs "white collar"? Appears that you want to make it more with the racial issue being thrown in.
The difference is in the how, not the amount looted or the race of the crook.
The other difference is that these "white collar" criminal looters will spend the rest of their natural life in jail for the scam that they ran that made them rich for a while, while the black "looters" that took boatloads of AirJordans, flat screens, IPhones, etc while emptying the cash registers all after smashing their way into these businesses (often small shops owned by local folks), destroying the facilities and dancing in the streets on camera will never see a day in jail for their crime.
Yes, it takes a while to unscramble the breadth of the crimes done in these white collar lootings so they might avoid the pokey for a while but now their gravy train has come to an end.
Your looters, though, are probably all at home now trying on their new treads and hawking their excess wares around the 'hood.
This is an example of how confusing the virus is. She says she followed guidelines and wore a mask but still got the virus. She also live in the same house with others and they didn’t get it. I would assume she didn’t wear a mask at home so they were less protected with a infected person. This is what I believe has caused people to somewhat give up and go out. It seems no matter what you will or won’t get it.
Knew of Mr. Barrett when he was a Vicksburg resident 20 some-odd years ago.
Seemed like a shyster then, so this doesn't surprise me one bit.
Brett Farve sure is around a lot of criminals. Just sayin
Barrett and Rutland are Vicksburg natives
We need a judges and prosecutors in Mississippi with the balls to put these white collar criminals in jail for long periods of time.
It's ridiculous how little time some of these people get for stealing hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. Get addicted to drugs and you go to jail for much longer than if you steal someones retirement fund.
Frank Griffin: TriCare for Life is ONLY for veterans and their families, typically a surviving (qualified) spouse if other than the veteran.
The folks on TriCare are easy targets, fish in a barrel to be scammed at will by every section of the medical profession, including pharmacies. But, the policy holders are not the losers. The fraud perpetrated against these policies is at least equal to the pitiful service received from VA hospitals.
I guess we could also discuss the fraudulent awarding of Purple Hearts and ramping up disabilities until the veteran is classified as 100% disabled, depending on who his lawyer is and how much noise he makes.
Does *anything* VA connected actually work?
"I guess we could also discuss the fraudulent awarding of Purple Hearts and ramping up disabilities until the veteran is classified as 100% disabled, depending on who his lawyer is and how much noise he makes."
After all, as with SNAP, TANF and federal crop insurance, it's free money.
Popping popcorn for the main event. Our ex governor has had his hand in many state departments pockets and hopefully the feds have gotten their charges ready. This will pale in comparison to Illinois governor Bagoiavitch.
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