A federal jury convicted a Beverly Hills resident on Nov. 15 for his role in an approximately $723,000 health care fraud and prescription drug diversion scheme involving two Southern California pharmacies.

Shahriar “Michael” Kalantari, 55, of Beverly Hills, generated false prescriptions as part of a health care fraud and unlicensed wholesale distribution scheme in 2016-17, prosecutors said. Kalantari’s co-conspirators obtained beneficiary information, which the defendant used to write fraudulent prescriptions for expensive prescription medication, including drugs used to treat HIV. Claims were submitted to Medicare and Medicaid of California for the drugs, which were never dispensed to the beneficiaries and were sold on the black market.

Kalantari was convicted of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, health care fraud and conspiracy to engage in the unlicensed wholesale distribution of prescription drugs, authorities said. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 24. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for each of the health care fraud conspiracy and health care fraud counts, and a maximum of five years in prison for the unlicensed distribution of drugs counts.