- Two telehealth execs have been accused of running an illegal drug scheme.
- The DOJ says the executives raked in $100 million by doling out millions of phony prescriptions.
- The department says they didn't back down even when they learned some patients had overdosed.
Two executives of a California telehealth company have been arrested and accused of running an illegal Adderall drug scheme to the tune of $100 million.
In a press release on Thursday, the Justice Department announced the arrests of Ruthia He, the founder and CEO of Done Global Inc., and David Brody, the digital-health company's clinical president, in California.
The department alleges that the two executives committed healthcare fraud by remotely distributing Adderall and other stimulants to patients for no medical purpose and then submitting false claims for reimbursement of the drugs.
Prosecutors accuse the pair of not backing down even after they learned Done members had overdosed and died.
"The individuals charged today allegedly disregarded the first rule of medical care — do no harm — in order to maximize profits, and there is no place for such fraud in our healthcare system," Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, said in the Justice Department's press release.
Attorneys for He and Brody didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Justice Department accuses the defendants of luring drug seekers to the subscription-based healthcare service through millions of dollars of deceptive social-media advertisements.
Prosecutors say they then encouraged doctors in their network to prescribe Adderall, even when a patient didn't qualify, helping them make $100 million in revenue from prescriptions of more than 40 million pills.
He and Brody, prosecutors say, ordered that doctors keep initial patient consultations to under 30 minutes, then set up an auto-refill option to keep patients' prescriptions flowing without the need for follow-up appointments.
The defendants, prosecutors allege, also discouraged doctors from continuously caring for patients by refusing to pay them for any medical visits beyond the initial consultation. Instead, He and Brody paid them for the number of prescriptions they doled out, the department says.
He and Brody, the department alleges, kept the plan going after they were told that people had been posting social-media explainers on how to use Done to get easy access to Adderall and other addictive drugs.
"Done Global strongly disagrees with the criminal charges filed last week against our founder, Ruthia He, and Dr. David Brody," a spokesperson for Done Global said in a statement to Business Insider. "Done Global will continue to operate — and do everything in our power to ensure that tens of thousands of Americans that rely on us do not lose access to their mental health care."
In addition to the drug-conspiracy charges, He and Brody were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors allege the pair learned about a grand-jury subpoena and "deleted documents and communications," spoke through encrypted messages, and didn't provide the subpoenaed documents to the grand jury.
This is the first time that anyone has been charged with operating an illegal drug-distribution scheme through a telemedicine company, according to the department.
Both He and Brody face up to 20 years in prison.
This story was updated on June 21, 2024 to include a statement from Done Global.
