Doctor ordered to pay $7.2 million as part of diet pill scheme in Mississippi
A Mississippi doctor who pleaded guilty to health care fraud last year will spend the next four years behind bars.
Dr. Shahjahan Sultan, 38, was sentenced to federal prison Tuesday and ordered to pay $7.2 million in restitution for his role in a scam involving pricey compound pain creams and diet pills, according to the Clarion Ledger.
Sultan, who once practiced in Vicksburg, was one of four people indicted in the multi-million dollar scheme. His attorney, former state Supreme Court Justice Chuck McRae, said at least $4 million is already repaid, the newspaper reported.
From 2014 to 2015, prosecutors said Sultan and his co-conspirators prescribed millions of dollars in unnecessary pain creams and pills to patients for repayment, according to the Associated Press. The doctor inked a contract with a Jackson County pharmacy in 2014 to “promote and prescribe” the medicines, regardless of if a patient needed it.
Read more: https://www.sunherald.com/news/state/mississippi/article243627417.html
(Gulfport Sun Herald)