{"id":409987,"date":"2026-08-18T17:42:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:42:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/409987\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T17:42:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T17:42:13","slug":"spring-pharmacist-convicted-in-20m-healthcare-kickback-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/409987\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring pharmacist convicted in $20M healthcare kickback scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/default-image.png\" alt=\"Livestream\" class=\"livestream-poster-image\" data-v-e2115db2=\"\"\/>     <\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">HOUSTON &#8211; A Spring pharmacist faces time in federal prison after being found guilty by a federal jury of conspiring to pay millions of dollars in illegal healthcare kickbacks.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Tronown Thomas, 54, owned and operated Rayford ACP Pharmacy. He was convicted of conspiracy to pay health care kickbacks after a five-day trial.<\/p>\n<p> $20 million kickback scheme\u00a0  <\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">During the trial, it was argued Thomas paid more than $2 million in kickbacks to the owner of a Houston clinic. In exchange, the clinic referred patients who were covered under the Department of Labor\u2019s Office of Workers\u2019 Compensation Programs (DOL-OWCP) and prescribed expensive compounded medications.<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Thomas would bill the DOL-OWCP for those prescriptions. Between November 2015 and September 2017, Thomas and Rayford ACP Pharmacy got more than $20 million in reimbursements from the federal program.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">The other side:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">During the trial, the defense argued that Thomas was not paying kickbacks, but rather paying for legitimate marketing services. The jury rejected those claims and returned a guilty verdict.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KRIV\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-94395e58=\"\">What&#8217;s next:<\/p>\n<p data-v-94395e58=\"\">Sentencing is set for Nov. 12 and Thomas faces up to five years in prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"group-source-paragraph\" data-v-4fbf7207=\"\">The Source: U.S. Attorney&#8217;s Office, Southern District of Texas<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/us\/tx\/harris-county\/spring\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spring<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox26houston.com\/tag\/top-stories\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-94395e58=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Top Stories<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON &#8211; A Spring pharmacist faces time in federal prison after being found guilty by a federal jury&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":232608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[405,56,58,57,223,746,2053,216,393],"class_list":["post-409987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-news","tag-spring","tag-top-stories","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409987","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409987"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409987\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409987"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409987"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409987"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}