{"id":537508,"date":"2026-03-21T22:44:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/537508\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T22:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:44:33","slug":"shekarchi-suing-cvs-on-behalf-of-union-claiming-rico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/537508\/","title":{"rendered":"Shekarchi Suing CVS on Behalf of Union Claiming RICO\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>    Shekarchi Suing CVS on Behalf of Union Claiming RICO Violation<\/p>\n<p>          <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:360\/355;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Joe_Shekarchi_Speaker_of_the_House_Lawyer_SQUARE_PHOTO_GoLocal.png\" width=\"360\" height=\"355\" loading=\"lazy\" isopen=\"true&quot;\"\/>Speaker of the House \u00a0and attorney Joseph Shekarchi PHOTO: GoLocal&#8217;s Richard McCaffrey<\/p>\n<p>Rhode Island Speaker of the House Joseph Shekarchi is suing CVS Health Corporation on behalf of a national union, alleging that the company, one of the state\u2019s largest employers, perpetrated fraud and \u201coperated a RICO enterprise\u201d as it pertained to prescription benefit management (PBM) contracts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Shekarchi is part of a legal team that has filed a juggernaut lawsuit against CVS, and he is acting as a private attorney and not in his role as the Speaker. The lawsuit was filed in the federal district court in Rhode Island on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRacketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations\u201d is referenced 20 times in the 77-page class action complaint filed on Wednesday by the \u201cRoofers\u2019 Unions Welfare Trust Fund\u201d in the United States District Court of Rhode Island, of which Shekarchi is the local counsel on behalf of national firms in Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"font-bold text-brand-teal\" href=\"https:\/\/www.golocalprov.com\/newsletter\" style=\"display:block;margin-bottom:10px;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE &#8212; SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The complaint alleges CVS operated PBM contracts between Caremark and the Class\u00a0\u201cthat falsely and\/or misleadingly conceal Caremark\u2019s side agreements with the\u00a0drug companies that participate in the PBM Fraud Enterprises to give favorable\u00a0formulary placements in return for bribes and kickbacks to Defendants through\u00a0Zinc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The roofers union is part of the class; Zinc is a pharmacy benefit manager that is at the center of a scathing report issued in 2024 by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) detailing how increasing vertical integration and concentration has enabled the six largest PBMs &#8211; which includes Zinc &#8211; to manage nearly 95 percent of all prescriptions filled in the United States. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.golocalprov.com\/business\/ftc-report-hits-cvs-and-others-claiming-drug-middleman-profit-at-expense-of\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:728\/529;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Roofers-lawsuit-Shekarchi-CVS-RICO-March-18-2026.png\" width=\"728\" height=\"529\" loading=\"lazy\" isopen=\"true&quot;\"\/>Roofers lawsuit against mulitple claims including a civil RICO Violation SOURCE: U.S. Federal Court Filing<\/p>\n<p>Specifically, the lawsuit maintains that Zinc is a \u201cfake GPO\u201d a group purchasing organization &#8211; in order to \u201cimplement [a] formulary manipulation scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Shekarchi on Record &#8211; and CVS in Focus<\/p>\n<p>When reached for comment, Shekarchi called the filing of the lawsuit on behalf of the union against CVS a \u201cprivate law matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shekarchi said he was \u201cnot aware of any CVS legislative bills before the General Assembly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to data maintained by the Rhode Island Board of Elections, CVS\u2019 \u201cRhode Island State PAC\u201d alone has given over $117,000 to candidates and elected officials for the period it has recorded contributions online.<\/p>\n<p>State records show that former State Senator-turned-lobbyist Bob Goldberg received $33,333.32 in February alone from CVS Health for his government relations fee.<\/p>\n<p>In his report, Goldberg had to disclose which bills he is \u201cwatching\u201d at the General Assembly this session &#8211; which, in February, he listed none.<\/p>\n<p>The other registered lobbyist in Rhode Island for CVS Health is Steve Larrabee, who, in his February report, specifically listed eight specific bills he was \u201cwatching\u201d on behalf of CVS Health &#8211; including four House bills. The fate of those bills is decided in part by Shekarchi.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio:728\/675;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CVS-Health-Lawsuit-Larribee-Lobbying-March-18-2026.png\" width=\"728\" height=\"675\" loading=\"lazy\" isopen=\"true&quot;\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Over the years, Shekarchi has received $10,150 from CVS employees, $7,000 from the CVS PAC and $8,675 from Goldberg.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0This story was first reported 3\/18\/26 at 3:10 PM<\/p>\n<p>        <img :src=\"https:\/\/www.golocalprov.com\/news\/modalImage\" alt=\"Selected Image\" class=\"w-full max-w-3xl h-auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p>      Enjoy this post? Share it with others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shekarchi Suing CVS on Behalf of Union Claiming RICO Violation Speaker of the House \u00a0and attorney Joseph Shekarchi&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[28,46264,10357,88,46260,97,252,253,6270,3,46265,11748,880,46261,46263,46262,99,2986],"class_list":["post-537508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-business","tag-campaign-2014","tag-digital-news","tag-entertainment","tag-golocalprov","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-investigation","tag-news","tag-ocean-state","tag-providence","tag-rhode-island","tag-rhode-island-news","tag-rhode-island-politics","tag-rhode-island-sports","tag-sports","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}