Three pharmacy owners received federal sentences Thursday for being involved in a multi-million dollar conspiracy to commit health care fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.
Glenn Doyle Beach, 47, of Sumrall and Hope Thomley, 53, of Hattiesburg were sentenced for conspiring to commit health care fraud and conspiring to commit money laundering and tax evasion. Howard “Randy” Thomley, 61, of Hattiesburg was sentenced for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett sentenced a total of 420 months in federal prison among the three offenders.
Beach was sentenced to 156 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. Hope Thomley was sentenced to prison for 168 months, followed by three years of supervised release. Randy Thomley’s sentence was 96 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Monetary judgments among the trio added to totals of $41.9 million in monetary judgments and restitution of $378.2 million
Beach was ordered to pay a monetary judgment of $9,109,872 along with restitution of $185,407,641.75. Hope Thomley was ordered to pay judgment of $29,249,018.51 along with restitution of $189,200,787.75. Randy Thomley was sentenced to pay monetary judgment of $3,651,173.19 along with the restitution of $3,651,173.19.
Beach and Randy Thomley were both owners of Advantage Pharmacy in Hattiesburg, and Thomley also owned and operated a compound prescription distributor for Advantage Pharmacy.
Beach and Hope Thomley were involved in a scheme to defraud health care benefit programs, including TRICARE, by dispensing, distributing, and marketing compounded medications, which are medications specially combined or formulated to meet the individual needs of patients.
Through Advantage Pharmacy, Beach formulated and mass-produced compounded medications without regard to the needs of patients, but to increase reimbursements paid by the health care benefit programs. Hope Thomley knew Beach and other co-conspirators were formulating the compounded prescriptions to increase reimbursements.
Hope Thomley’s marketing company received nearly 50 percent of the reimbursements that Advantage Pharmacy obtained from compounded medications. She also obtained prescribers' signatures on blank prescription forms and then filled out the forms in the names of her children and TRICARE beneficiaries that she and her husband, Randy Thomley, had recruited.
From April 2012 through January 2016, health-care benefit programs – including TRICARE – reimbursed Advantage Pharmacy and other pharmacies involved in the scheme at least $200 million.
Beach and Hope Thomley were also sentenced for their role in a money laundering and tax evasion scheme that was used to conceal the fraudulent proceeds of the compounded medications scheme and evade taxes.
Randy Thomley owned and operated a company called Advantage Marketing Professionals, which marketed medications for Advantage Pharmacy. For each prescription submitted to Advantage Pharmacy for compounded medications, he received a percentage of revenue.
He recruited TRICARE beneficiaries and paid them a percentage of the revenue for each prescription in order to induce the beneficiaries to accept millions of dollars of compounded medications. Randy Thomley also filled out pre-signed prescriptions for the TRICARE beneficiaries, knowing that prescribers had not examined the beneficiaries.
The FBI, IRS-CI, DCIS and MBN investigated the case with assistance from U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General and Office of Personnel Management OIG. Trial Attorneys Dustin M. Davis, Sara E. Porter, and Katherine E. Payerle of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section, Trial Attorney Amanda Wick of the Criminal Division’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section, and Assistant United States Attorney Kathlyn R. Van Buskirk of the Southern District of Mississippi prosecuted the case.
U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and Special Agent in Charge Michelle Sutphin of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Mississippi, Acting Special Agent in Charge Andrew M. Thornton of IRS Criminal Investigation, Special Agent in Charge Cynthia Bruce of Defense Criminal Investigative Service Southeast Field Office, and Interim Director Steven Maxwell of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics presented the results of the sentences.