Prosecutors Allege Kickback Scheme Netted $211M

Federal prosecutors in Southern California say a scheme to pay kickbacks to doctors who prescribed compound drugs to injured workers netted more than $211 million in payments over a four-year period. A superseding grand jury indictment handed down in April and filed with the U.S. District Court for Southern California on Nov. 27 accuses Hootan Melamed, Jean F. Picard and John Pangelinan of conspiring to defraud private workers’ compensation carriers in California, and the federal workers’ compensation program, by paying kickbacks to providers. In some cases, kickbacks were a...