Texas Pharmacist Convicted in $20 Million Health Care Kickback Scheme

HOUSTON, Texas — August 12, 2026 — A federal jury has convicted licensed pharmacist Tronown Thomas of participating in an illegal health care kickback conspiracy involving more than $2 million in payments and over $20 million in federal workers’ compensation reimbursements.

Thomas, 54, of Spring, Texas, owned and operated Rayford ACP Pharmacy. The jury returned its guilty verdict after deliberating for more than a day following a five-day trial before U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett.

Evidence presented during the trial established that Thomas paid more than $2 million in kickbacks to the owner of a Houston clinic. The payments were made in exchange for referrals of patients insured through the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs who had received prescriptions for high-reimbursement compounded medications.

Thomas then billed the federal workers’ compensation program for medications prescribed through the illegal referral arrangement. Between November 2015 and September 2017, Thomas and Rayford ACP Pharmacy received more than $20 million in reimbursements from the program.

The scheme connected the clinic’s patient referrals to the pharmacy’s federal reimbursements. The clinic directed qualifying prescriptions to Rayford ACP Pharmacy, Thomas paid the clinic owner for those referrals, and the pharmacy submitted claims to the Department of Labor program.

Compounded medications are prepared by combining or modifying pharmaceutical ingredients to meet specific prescription requirements. The conviction was not based on compounding itself, but on the payments used to obtain patient referrals and generate federally reimbursed prescriptions.

Thomas maintained that the payments were compensation for legitimate marketing services. Federal prosecutors presented evidence that the transactions were kickbacks tied to the referral of federally insured patients. The jury rejected the defense and convicted Thomas of conspiracy to pay health care kickbacks.

Sentencing is scheduled for November 12 before Judge Bennett. Thomas faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison and a possible fine of up to $250,000. The final sentence will be determined by the court. Thomas was permitted to remain free on bond pending the sentencing hearing.

The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of War Defense Criminal Investigative Service conducted the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Olson and Alexander Alum prosecuted the case.

The prosecution was announced during an expanded federal effort targeting fraud against government programs and the American public. The Department of Justice created its National Fraud Enforcement Division on April 7 following a memorandum issued by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

The division’s work supports President Donald Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a government-wide initiative chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to address fraud, waste and abuse affecting federal benefit programs.

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