A pharmacy technician who worked at three pharmacies in the metro-Detroit area pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and possession with intent to illegally distribute oxycodone. The plea was announced by the Justice Department on May 1, 2026.
According to court documents, from 2019 through 2022 the technician and a co-conspirator submitted false claims to Medicare, Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for prescription drugs that no doctor had ordered and that were never dispensed to patients. Forged prescriptions listing doctors the patients had never seen were used to hide the scheme, which caused losses of over $5.6 million. During the same period, the technician provided unlawful oxycodone prescriptions to drug traffickers in exchange for cash, without regard to whether a physician had actually prescribed the medication or whether it was dispensed in good faith.
The case was investigated by the FBI's Detroit Field Office, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General and the City of Dearborn Police Department, and was prosecuted by the Criminal Division's Fraud Section together with the U.S. Attorney's Office. The release does not describe the specific trigger that led investigators to the pharmacies.
Sentencing was scheduled for September 1, with a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison. A federal judge will determine the actual sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.