Veloxis Pharmaceuticals, a drug manufacturer based in Cary, North Carolina, has agreed to pay over $46 million to resolve criminal and civil allegations of paying kickbacks to healthcare professionals, the Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General announced.
The company conspired to violate federal anti-kickback laws by paying for lavish meals, alcohol, and luxury resort stays to induce healthcare professionals to recommend or prescribe Envarsus XR, a kidney transplant immunosuppression drug, investigators determined.
The VA OIG said the settlement represents the largest recovery under the federal Sunshine Act since the law was passed in 2010.
In separate cases, Dana Nicole Johnson of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to pay more than $18,000 for Supplemental Security Income fraud and theft of government property. Johnson had worked for both a home healthcare business and as a federal employee at a Veterans Affairs medical center while receiving SSI benefits, concealing her wages from the Social Security Administration, investigators said.
Mehrdad Gerami, an Iranian national residing in Coos Bay, Oregon, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. According to court documents, Gerami owned and operated Coastal Diagnostic Testing Group in Oregon and, with employees, charged for intensive, in-office sleep studies that were medically unnecessary or did not take place since 2021. The estimated loss exceeded $2 million.