A McAllen man, John Ageudo Rodriguez, has entered a guilty plea in a conspiracy case involving kickbacks for prescription referrals. The announcement was made by U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani. Rodriguez, who is 55 years old and a licensed pharmacist, owned Pharr Family Pharmacy located in Pharr.
Rodriguez admitted to paying over $24 million in kickbacks to various marketers. These marketers had connections with physicians and clinics, enabling them to refer prescriptions for costly compound drugs to Rodriguez’s pharmacy.
The conspiracy spanned from 2014 to 2016, during which Rodriguez's pharmacy billed more than $110 million to federal health care benefit programs for these compound drugs.
His guilty plea comes after several other marketers involved in the scheme also pleaded guilty. Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane accepted Rodriguez's plea and scheduled sentencing for March 25. At that time, Rodriguez could face up to five years in federal prison along with a potential fine of up to $250,000.
Rodriguez remains on bond until the sentencing hearing.
The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Postal Service – Office of Inspector General (OIG), Department of Labor – OIG, FBI, Department of Defense – Defense Criminal Investigative Service, Department of Veteran Affairs – OIG, Department of Health and Human Services - OIG, and Texas Health and Human Services - OIG. Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Swartz is handling the prosecution.