Pharma Boss on Trial in Dallas in $55M Fraud Case

A Fort Worth pharmacy owner charged with bilking the federal government out of $55 million to support his extravagant lifestyle — one of “private jets, chartered yachts … Lamborghinis and Ferraris,” as one prosecutor put it — went on trial Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer of Dallas.

Richard Hall, a co-owner of two related companies, Rxpress Pharmacy (also known as The Medicine Store Pharmacy Inc.) and Xpress Compounding, is accused of conspiracy, paying kickbacks to marketers and money laundering in connection with billing federal healthcare programs for filling prescriptions for “compounded drugs.” These medications are specially mixed and often exceedingly costly treatments for patients who cannot take mass-produced prescription drugs.