Pharmacist Convicted of Fraud, Black-Market Drug Scheme

A federal jury convicted a California woman on Oct. 14, 2022 for a health care fraud and prescription drug diversion scheme involving two Southern California pharmacies.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Irina Sadovsky, 53, of Calabasas, the owner and pharmacist-in-charge of Five Star RX doing business as Five Star Pharmacy (Five Star Pharmacy) and Ultimate Pharmacy Inc. (Ultimate Pharmacy), engaged in a health care fraud and black market prescription drug diversion conspiracy that began in or around September 2016, and continued through in or around April 2017. Sadovsky submitted claims to Medicaid of California (Medi-Cal) and Medicare for prescription drugs that were never dispensed to beneficiaries but rather were provided to co-conspirators to sell on the black market.

Sadovsky’s co-conspirators created fraudulent prescriptions, either by writing the prescriptions themselves or by paying kickbacks to marketers with access to patients and prescribers. Sadovsky recommended the combinations of prescription drugs to be written, checked the eligibility of the patients for reimbursement, and fraudulently submitted claims to Medi-Cal and Medicare.

Sadovsky was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and conspiracy to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 3, 2023 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for the health care fraud conspiracy, and five years in prison for the unlicensed distribution conspiracy. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.