By SDCN Editor
A pharmacy owner and an associate were sentenced for submitting false and fraudulent claims to Medicare and California Medicaid (Medi-Cal) for prescription drugs and engaging in a black market prescription drug diversion conspiracy.
Irina Sadovsky, 54, of Calabasas, California, a pharmacist who owned Five Star RX, doing business as Five Star Pharmacy and Ultimate Pharmacy Inc., was sentenced on July 8 to two years and three months in prison. Shahriar “Michael” Kalantari, 56, of Los Angeles, was sentenced yesterday to one year and 11 months in prison.
According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, from September 2016 to April 2017, Sadovsky conspired to submit fraudulent claims to Medicare and Medi-Cal for prescription drugs that were never dispensed to beneficiaries and instead were provided to her co-conspirators to sell on the black market. Sadovsky’s co-conspirators created fraudulent prescriptions, and Sadovsky recommended the combinations of prescription drugs to be written and checked the eligibility of the patients for reimbursement.
Kalantari, who is not a medical professional, conspired with Sadovsky to defraud Medicare and Medi-Cal by generating false prescriptions. Kalantari’s co-conspirators obtained beneficiary information, which Kalantari then used to write or cause to be written false and fraudulent prescriptions for expensive prescription medication, including drugs used to treat HIV. These medications were not dispensed to patients but rather were provided to a co-conspirator to sell on the black market.
A jury convicted Sadovsky in October 2022 of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs. A jury convicted Kalantari in November 2022 of one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, three counts of healthcare fraud, and one count of conspiracy to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs.
