Flushing pharmacy owner charged in $4 million Medicaid kickback scheme

A Flushing pharmacy owner is charged with running a Medicaid kickback scheme from 2016 to 2020. Photo via Google Maps

By David Brand

A Flushing pharmacy owner was arrested and charged Wednesday for running a $4 million Medicaid fraud and kickback scheme.

Federal prosecutors said Robert John Sabet, the owner of Lucky Care Pharmacy in Flushing and Brooklyn Chemists in Gravesend, billed Medicaid and Medicare for expensive drugs that they were not prescribed or didn’t need. He also allegedly paid kickbacks to customers with public insurance plans from September 2016 to December 2020. 

Sabet, 44, used a portion of the money to pay for a $250,000 Porsche, prosecutors said. 

“The defendant’s alleged participation in health care fraud, and his payment of kickbacks and bribes, corrupted the trusted relationship between pharmacies and patients, and potentially harmed the very people that the Medicare and Medicaid programs are intended to serve,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Seth DuCharme.

Sabet was arraigned in Brooklyn federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ramon Reyes, Jr. and was released on $300,000 bond. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted.

Defense attorney Derrelle Janey said Sabet was surprised by the charges and maintains his innocence.

“The charges are very, very serious,” Janey said. “They are surprising to my client and we are going to find out exactly what’s going on here.”