Postal crime extends well beyond porch pirates and stolen mail. In some cases, these crimes occur in places you might least expect — including the doctor’s office.
As part of a decade-long investigation, the USPS Office of Inspector General uncovered a massive health care fraud scheme involving Texas pharmacies and medical providers.
These health care professionals billed the government hundreds of millions of dollars for medically unnecessary prescriptions, the OIG said in its semiannual report to Congress.
The operation centered on inflating prices for compound pain creams prescribed to injured federal workers — many of them USPS employees — and paid for by the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP).
In 2025 alone, the OIG’s investigation “brought to justice” 324 defendants who are now facing criminal charges for their alleged involvement in this scheme or similar operations.
Those facing charges include 96 doctors, nurse practitioners, pharmacists and other licensed medical professionals.
According to a July Justice Department release, intended losses were upwards of $14.6 billion.
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In 2015, the USPS Office of Inspector General launched an investigation into three pharmacies in Texas for receiving unusually high reimbursements from OWCP.
Investigators discovered several doctors were prescribing creams that were not medically necessary and billing the government at inflated prices to pocket the profit.
Over a three-year period, the pharmacies billed OWCP more than $145 million and received over $90 million in payments, according to the OIG’s report.
The creams themselves were inexpensive to produce, but pharmacies billed thousands of dollars per prescription — keeping the difference and sharing it with others involved in the operation, including doctors.
The OIG said it was later discovered that money was laundered through shell companies and the operation caused approximately $24 million in tax losses to the U.S. government.
In a related scheme, pharmacy owners billed a major private insurance company for unnecessary prescriptions written for the pharmacies’ own employees.
A physician assistant involved in the scheme prescribed more than $556,000 worth of medications without examining or treating patients.
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Two pharmacy owners pleaded guilty, were sentenced to a combined 32 years in federal prison and ordered to pay restitution.
The government seized more than $396.5 million in cash and over $4.6 million in real property — marking the largest cash forfeiture in the history of the Justice Department’s Northern District of Texas Health Care Fraud Unit.
Investigators found another family-owned pharmacy in Pharr, Texas, billed OWCP more than $95 million and received $41 million in payments. That pharmacy also billed TRICARE nearly $10 million.
Authorities said the owner recruited marketers, a physician, and clinic staff to steer unnecessary prescriptions to the pharmacy in exchange for kickbacks.
In total, 11 defendants pleaded guilty to health care fraud and kickback conspiracy charges. Nine have already been sentenced, with prison terms totaling more than 16 years, and were ordered to repay over $33 million to victims.
Federal officials emphasized that injured federal workers, including USPS employees, did not receive any financial benefit from the scheme and were considered victims of the fraud.