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John Verstraete, an osteopathic doctor in Kansas City, has been sentenced to one year in prison for leading a multi-million-dollar anabolic steroid and human growth hormone distribution enterprise from his Plaza Physician’s Group office.
As part of his plea agreement, Verstraete admitted to directing at least $1.5 million in fraudulent health insurance claims involving Serostim-brand human growth hormone.
United States District Judge Gary Fenner agreed that Verstraete was “obviously not an evil person” and agreed to show leniency when sentencing him on October 18, 2018. The 12-month prison sentence was far less than federal prosecutors had hoped for.
Assistant United States Attorney Sirena Wissler had asked the judge to imprison Verstraete based on the federal sentencing guidelines of 46 to 57 months in prison.
Christopher Angles, the defense attorney representing Verstraete, must have been satisfied with the leniency of the sentence. Angles had argued for probation and home confinement as an alternative to prison. But that was obviously a long-shot given the seriousness of Verstraete’s offense.
Verstraete got his entire office staff on board to participate in his scheme
Four members of his office staff were also indicted as Verstraete’s co-conspirators. The scheme generally involved prescribing Serostim brand hGH to his patients. The patients would go to a local pharmacy to fill the prescriptions.
Verstraete and his staff would falsify Medicare and health insurance claims to pay for the Serostim. Verstraete would then offer to buy back the Serostim if they returned to his office. The patients would then return to Verstraete’s office where the doctor or his staff would make off-the-books cash payments for the Serostim.
Verstraete and/or his staff would then remove the prescription labels from the re-purchased Serostim and sell it without a prescription to bodybuilders who visited Verstraete’s office. In addition to the Serostim, Verstraete also sold large quantities of anabolic steroids that his staff imported from overseas steroid sources.
Most of Verstraete’s staff has been sentenced to probation for their respective roles in the conspiracy. But Judge Fenner couldn’t quite let Verstraete get off so easily. After all, it was Verstraete’s willingness to prescribe Serosstim that put him in the “unique position” of making everything possible.
“Dr. Verstraete is in the unique position of having driven this entire course of conduct,” Wissler said. “He is the essential component of this entire conspiracy, without whom it couldn’t have existed or continued.”
Judge Fenner also ordered Verstraete to pay back the $1.5 million in fraudulent Serostim claims submitted by his office
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