Dr. Amir Friedman, a Calabasas anesthesiologist, has received a sentence of 14 months for his part in the massive New Age Pharmaceuticals fraud conspiracies, after pleading guilty in October of 2019 and admitting that the drugs prescribed were vastly more expensive than available equivalents. Dr. Friedman had been accused of receiving almost $800,000 in kickbacks for prescribing compounded pharmaceuticals, conspiring with a pharmacy owner and a marketer to commit honest services mail and wire fraud. The marketer provided pre-printed prescription pads and arranged payment of bribes and kickbacks for each prescription Dr. Friedman wrote, and the pharmacy owner then filled the prescriptions and billed carries, resulting in over $900 million in fraudulent billings.
The pharmacy owner and several unindicted co-conspirators controlled several pharmacies, including Beverly Hills’ New Age Pharmaceuticals. The compounding pharmacy’s owner, Hootan Melamed, had previously been charged in a fraudulent billing scheme that targeted government programs, including the California workers’ compensation system. Melamed was eventually sentenced to 6 months in prison and a forfeiture of $1.4 million.