A Michigan pharmacy technician admitted to a scheme that billed Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers for drugs that were never dispensed and sold oxycodone to traffickers, resulting in more than $5.6 million in losses.
Ali Naserdean, 32, of Dearborn Heights, Michigan, worked as a pharmacy technician at three metro-Detroit pharmacies and is now facing federal consequences for his role in a wide-ranging fraud and drug distribution scheme. Prosecutors say the misconduct ran from 2019 through 2022 and involved both fabricated billing and unlawful prescriptions. The case lays out how internal pharmacy roles can be exploited to target federal and private health programs.
According to court documents, Naserdean and a co-conspirator submitted claims for prescription drugs that were never ordered by a doctor and were never dispensed to patients. They used forged prescriptions listing doctors who had never seen the supposed patients, effectively creating a paper trail to disguise the fraud. That kind of paperwork manipulation let the scheme feed false claims into Medicare, Medicaid, and private plans for years.
The fraud caused more than $5.6 million in losses to Medicare, Medicaid, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, according to authorities. Those are not just abstract figures; they represent taxpayer dollars and insurer payments diverted by a deliberate scheme. The scale of the loss pushed the case into federal court and drew the attention of multiple enforcement agencies.
In addition to billing fraud, investigators allege Naserdean provided unlawful prescriptions for oxycodone to drug traffickers in exchange for cash. Those prescriptions were issued without regard to whether a legitimate physician had authorized the medication or whether it was dispensed in good faith. That part of the alleged activity crosses from billing abuse into the illegal distribution of controlled substances.
Naserdean pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and possession with intent to illegally distribute oxycodone. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 1 and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The announcement named several Justice Department and federal law enforcement officials, including Assistant Attorney General Colin M. McDonald of the Justice Department’s National Fraud Enforcement Division; U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. for the Eastern District of Michigan; Special Agent in Charge Reuben Coleman of the FBI Detroit Field Office; and Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ethridge of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). The FBI Detroit Field Office, HHS-OIG, and the City of Dearborn Police Department investigated the case.
Trial Attorney Jeffrey A. Crapko of the Criminal Division’s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul A. Kuebler for the Eastern District of Michigan prosecuted the case. The coordinated effort shows how federal prosecutors and inspectors general work together to pursue schemes that prey on government benefits. Those teams rely on document reviews, billing audits, and undercover and financial investigations to build cases like this one.
On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the Fraud Division. The Fraud Division is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within Federal benefit programs.
The Department of Justice’s Health Care Fraud Strike Force Program, currently comprised of eight strike forces operating in federal districts across the country, has charged more than 6,200 defendants who collectively billed federal health care programs and private insurers more than $45 billion since 2007. In addition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, are taking steps to hold providers accountable for their involvement in health care fraud schemes. Authorities say the combination of criminal prosecutions and regulatory oversight is intended to deter similar abuses going forward.
