Nadeem Akhtar, 52, of Upper Saddle River, was sentenced to three years of probation. Akhtar also surrendered his pharmacist license for a period of three years and will be debarred from the Medicaid program for eight years. Omar Mohammad, 34, also of Upper Saddle River, was sentenced to one year of probation. Mohammad also surrendered his pharmacist license for a period of one year and will be debarred from the Medicaid program for five years. Akhtar and Mohammad were sentenced by Superior Court Judge Martin Cronin in Essex County. The sentences were based on the defendants’ Nov. 14 guilty pleas to third-degree Medicaid fraud. The charges were contained in an October 26, 2009 state grand jury indictment.

In pleading guilty, Akhtar, who was a licensed pharmacist at Orange Drugs in Newark, admitted that between May 11, 2006 and Oct. 15, 2008 he offered bribes to Medicaid beneficiaries to induce them to bring their prescriptions to Orange Drugs. Mohammad, also a licensed pharmacist at Orange Drugs, pleaded guilty to knowingly submitting claims to the Medicaid program for drugs that were not dispensed.

According to Acting Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Ronald Chillemi, this case was part of Operation PharmScam, which revealed that six pharmacies and two medical clinics in Jersey City and Newark participated in a multi-million dollar conspiracy to defraud Medicaid. The investigation involved more than 25 individuals, including pharmacists, doctors, physician assistants, pharmacy technicians and Medicaid beneficiaries. Under this scheme, the pharmacies were billing Medicaid for high priced AIDS/HIV and specialty drugs that were never ordered from the wholesalers or dispensed to the beneficiaries.

Detective Kevin Gannon and Deputy Attorneys General David Noble and Dolores Blackburn were assigned to the investigation. Noble and Blackburn represented the Office of the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the sentencing hearing.