Pharmacist Sentenced to Prison for Prescription Drug Fraud Scheme

Timothy W. Forester, of Venetia, Pennsylvania, has been sentenced in federal court to one year in prison, two years of supervised release, a fine of $10,000, and ordered to pay $649,524 in restitution on his conviction of obtaining controlled substances by fraud, misbranding of drugs, and health care fraud conspiracy.

Forester pled guilty on September 17, 2021. Forester owned and operated four pharmacies in the Pittsburgh region. Forester owned Prescription Center Plus pharmacies in McMurray, Eighty Four and South Park, along with Century Square Pharmacy in West Mifflin, where he fraudulently obtained and sold oxycodone and hydrocodone from November 2018 through February 2019.

Forester would order scheduled narcotics, mostly oxycodone and hydrocodone, from suppliers, intercept those deliveries, falsify pharmacy inventories and transport the drugs to his residence, where he would consume them. In addition, Forester would place labels for brand named drugs on bottles of generic drugs, and bill insurance companies and customers as if the drugs were the higher priced brand drugs. Finally, he would change the computer billing codes for drugs to falsely represent to payors that the drugs were brand, resulting in a much higher reimbursement.