A North Texas pharmacist, Dehshid 'David' Nourian, has been sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison and ordered to forfeit $405 million in assets for his role in a $145 million scheme to defraud the Department of Labor. The U.S. Department of Justice reported that Nourian, 62, from Plano, Texas, conspired with others to pay doctors to prescribe medically unnecessary compound creams to injured federal workers. He was also ordered to pay $115 million in restitution. The scheme involved three pharmacies in Fort Worth and Arlington, Texas, operated by Nourian and his associates. These pharmacies billed the Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs and Blue Cross Blue Shield for as much as $16,000 per prescription, while the actual cost to produce the creams was around $15 per prescription. The fraudulent activities took place between May 2014 and March 2017, resulting in over $90 million in payments to the pharmacies. The creams were mixed by untrained teenagers in the back rooms of the pharmacies. Patients testified that the creams were ineffective and sometimes caused painful skin rashes. Nourian and his accomplices laundered the profits through shell companies and attempted to evade $24 million in federal income taxes. Nourian was convicted on multiple counts including conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, emphasized the commitment to prosecuting such sophisticated fraud schemes.