Two leaders of a telehealth company in California have been arrested for allegedly running an illegal scheme involving Adderall, a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The scheme is said to have made them $100 million.
Ruthia He, the CEO of Done Global Inc., and David Brody, the clinical president, were arrested in California. The Department of Justice (DOJ) claims that they committed healthcare fraud by giving out Adderall and other stimulants to patients without a valid medical reason, and then submitting false claims to get reimbursed for the drugs.
The DOJ also accuses them of continuing their scheme even after they found out that some patients had overdosed and died.
The defendants allegedly used deceptive social media ads to attract people looking for drugs. They then pressured doctors in their network to prescribe Adderall, even when it wasn’t medically necessary, making $100 million from prescriptions of over 40 million pills.
He and Brody allegedly made sure initial patient consultations were short, and then set up automatic refills for prescriptions without follow-up appointments. They also reportedly paid doctors based on the number of prescriptions they wrote, rather than for providing ongoing care.
Despite warnings that people were using social media to figure out how to abuse their system for easy access to Adderall, He and Brody allegedly continued their plan.
In addition to drug conspiracy charges, He and Brody are charged with obstructing justice. Prosecutors say they deleted documents and messages, communicated through encrypted messages, and didn’t give subpoenaed documents to the grand jury.
This is the first time someone has been charged with running an illegal drug scheme through a telemedicine company.
He and Brody could each face up to 20 years in prison.