A physician with ties to a Beverly Hills pharmaceutical company was sentenced on Oct. 15 to 14 months in federal prison for accepting nearly $800,000 in bribes and kickbacks in a conspiracy that unlawfully billed health insurers for compounded medication prescriptions.

Dr. Amir Friedman, 56, pleaded guilty in October 2019 to one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and conspiracy to violate the Travel Act, a federal law that forbids the use of the U.S. mail for any purpose aiding bribery. Friedman, a licensed anesthesiologist, violated the fiduciary duty he owed to his patients by accepting kickbacks and bribes for writing prescriptions, federal authorities said.

Compounded drugs are tailor-made medications that doctors may prescribe when the Food and Drug Administration-approved alternative does not meet the health needs of a patient. From August 2013 to May 2015, Friedman conspired with New Age Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Beverly Hills-based company, and a marketer – listed in court documents as Marketer A – to violate federal law, prosecutors said. Insurance companies under the California Workers’ Compensation System reimbursed New Age Pharmaceuticals, located at 1147 S. Beverly Drive, Ste. B, for dispensing prescription drugs and other pharmaceuticals. Marketer A was paid commissions for facilitating the referral of compounded drug prescriptions, authorities added.

Marketer A provided pre-printed prescription pads for compounded drugs to Friedman and offered Friedman kickbacks and bribes for each prescription he wrote. After Friedman wrote the kickback-tainted prescriptions, New Age dispensed the compounded drugs, billed insurance companies for reimbursement and shipped the compounded drugs to patients using the U.S. Postal Service, according to prosecutors.

Friedman accepted $788,140 in kickbacks and bribes – a sum he received in the form of approximately 28 check payments that represented proceeds from the conspiracy. He admitted in a plea agreement that he was aware that the compounded drugs he prescribed were far more expensive than equivalents.

The FBI investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Poonam G. Kumar.