Pain clinic CEO sentenced to 15 years in prison for role in $150M fraud, opioid distribution scheme
by Paige Minemyer | Mar 5, 2021
The CEO of a Michigan- and Ohio-based group of pain clinics and other providers was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in a $150 million fraud and opioid distribution scheme.
Mashiyat Rashid, 40, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, was also ordered to pay more than $51 million in restitution to Medicare and to forfeit property traceable to scheme to the United States, which includes $11.5 million in real estate and a Detroit Pistons season ticket membership.
As CEO of the Tri-County Wellness Group from 2008 to 2016, the clinics operated under a policy to offer patients 30mg prescriptions of Oxycodone in exchange for painful back injections. Some patients who visited the clinics were suffering from pain, and others were drug dealers and opioid addicts, according to DOJ.
Rashid pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, and one count of money laundering for his role in the scheme. Twenty-one others, including 12 physicians, have been convicted in connection with the case to date.
