15 medical professionals indicted in $25M scheme
6/24/2014LOS ANGELES — Fifteen doctors, pharmacists and others in California have been charged in a $25 million workers’ compensation scam that prosecutors say was linked to the death of a baby.
Recently unsealed indictments allege that the head of a workers’ compensation claims management firm hired pharmacists to produce a pain-relief cream.
Prosecutors say Kareem Ahmed of Landmark Medical Management then gave kickbacks to doctors to prescribe the cream and conspired to submit phony claims.
A coroner’s report says a 5-month-old boy in Los Angeles County ate the cream and died. Ahmed, pharmacist Michael Rudolph and Dr. Andrew Jarminski are charged with involuntary manslaughter. In addition, the parents of the baby are suing over his death.
Ahmed’s attorney, Richard Moss, denies Ahmed did anything illegal and says he’ll be exonerated. Attorneys for Rudolph and Jarminski didn’t respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
The case was first reported on by KPCC-FM.