{"id":742274,"date":"2026-08-18T21:54:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:54:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/742274\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T21:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T21:54:16","slug":"us-man-posed-as-doctor-in-scheme-to-profit-from-ozempic-prosecutors-say-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/742274\/","title":{"rendered":"US man posed as doctor in scheme to profit from Ozempic, prosecutors say | Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Illinois<\/a> man who allegedly impersonated doctors \u2013 and evidently referred to himself online as \u201c$hotboy1\u201d \u2013 is facing criminal charges that he secured unauthorized prescriptions for Ozempic and Mounjaro, pharmaceutical drugs that facilitate weight loss and are taken by some people for cosmetic rather than legitimate medical reasons.<\/p>\n

Rodney Greer purportedly launched the alleged scheme in early 2023, according to court filings from federal prosecutors and a US justice department news release issued on Monday.<\/p>\n

In exchange for obtaining the illicit prescriptions for what are known as GLP-1 medications, customers of Greer would pay him money, federal prosecutors in Manhattan contended.<\/p>\n

Greer, who allegedly also went by the name Christian Marchand, pleaded not guilty to the four-count indictment that accused him of wire fraud, healthcare fraud and aggravated identity theft. Greer\u2019s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Greer got his hands on doctors\u2019 personal identification, which included their names and national provider identification numbers (NPIs). Federal prosecutors allege that Greer kept \u201chandwritten lists\u201d with about 60 doctors\u2019 personal information across about 19 US states.<\/p>\n

Then, from January 2023 until March 2026, Greer called approximately 261 pharmacies on about 3,329 different occasions and used the doctors\u2019 identifying and licensing information \u201cto impersonate them\u201d. Greer, prosecutors alleged, \u201cclaimed to be a health care provider; falsely identified himself as a physician; and provided other false information to receive GLP-1 and other prescription medications\u201d.<\/p>\n

Greer in doing so enabled the \u201cunauthorized redemption\u201d of hundreds of thousands of dollars in health insurance plan benefits for his clients, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

A federal criminal complaint against Greer, which led to his arrest in Chicago<\/a> in June, detailed his purported scheme with allegedly incriminating text messages. In one exchange, Greer\u2019s name is allegedly written as \u201c$hotboy1 Christian Marchand\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was unclear whether the name was a reference to the fact that Ozempic and Mounjaro are frequently taken with an injection pen.<\/p>\n

In any event, in late March 2023, one buyer of Ozempic pinged Greer over an alleged delay, writing, \u201c[w]hat good playa \u2026 U forgot bout ya boy\u201d, the complaint against Greer said.<\/p>\n

Greer allegedly responded: \u201c[N]ope it\u2019s a process, should know something today.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June of that year, Greer allegedly sent that person a message stating: \u201c[s]o go ahead with the 2mg?\u201d<\/p>\n

The buyer at another point asked: \u201c[d]id you put in my thing for this week my shjt [sic] is done,\u201d to which Greer allegedly replied: \u201c[y]es sir.\u201d<\/p>\n

That particular buyer has pleaded guilty under a cooperation agreement related to Greer\u2019s alleged scheme.<\/p>\n

Authorities also cited messages in a payment application. One payment app showing the username $hotboy1 \u201clists two display names as being associated with the account: \u2018Christian Marchand\u2019 and \u2018Rod Greer\u2019\u201d, the criminal complaint stated.<\/p>\n

One payment app account received seven payments from a supposed patient, with one transaction stating: \u201cI\u2019m ready for my order.\u201d One payment mentioned a patient\u2019s name \u201cfollowed by \u2018OZE\u2019 \u2013 the first three letters of Ozempic\u2019\u201d, the criminal complaint said.<\/p>\n

Another alleged payment description states \u201cdeposit for next pen\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Illinois man who allegedly impersonated doctors \u2013 and evidently referred to himself online as \u201c$hotboy1\u201d \u2013 is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[102,6591,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-742274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=742274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}