Testimony Begins in $160M Medicare Fraud Trial of Pharmacy CEO

A panel of jurors in Houston will determine whether a local man who was the CEO of a company that ran 14 pharmacies is guilty of perpetrating a $160 million fraud on the government or if he was operating within the bounds of the law, as his defense attorneys claim.

Opening statements came Tuesday morning in the trial of Mohamed Mokbel. He is facing 15 charges — including conspiracy to commit healthcare and mail fraud, healthcare fraud, money laundering, bribery and conspiracy to commit bribery — related to his role in what prosecutors described as a four-part scheme.