After a jury found guilty, the Jacksonville pharmacy fraud case was dismissed

On By Yukito

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A judge dismissed fraud charges brought against a St. County man five years ago. Johns indicted in a ring that offered bribes to increase sales of expensive combination drugs paid for by the Tricare military health care system.

Scott Balotin, 54, was convicted of health care fraud conspiracy in 2021 and faced 18 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned last year when new information cast doubt on his guilt.

Instead of proceeding with a new trial scheduled for February, prosecutors this month asked U.S. District Judge Marcia Morales Howard for permission to dismiss the case after a new court-appointed defense attorney tried to get the charges dismissed based on allegations of misconduct and violations of prosecutors’ rights. Balotina.

Prosecutors decided to drop the case “due to prosecutorial discretion,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Coolican responded in a filing addressed to Howard.

Coolican wrote that the government is not admitting any of the defense arguments, but that the topic will remain moot if prosecutors do not intend to proceed with a second trial.

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Court records show that Balotin, whose family includes four generations of pharmacists, allegedly made about $2 million in profit from the work of the company he ran, which sold medicated creams for pain and scars from a pharmacy in Jacksonville, mainly to people covered by Tricare insurance.

Compounding pharmacies combine medications by hand, making them much more expensive than many conventional pharmacies that use factory-made pills.

While many insurers don’t cover compounded prescriptions, Tricare did.

The U.S. attorney’s office said in 2019 that reimbursement rates for a month’s supply of some creams can range from $4,000 to $17,000.

In 2019, prosecutors indicted Balotin along with 10 others in two cases and said people working for his company offered bribes and kickbacks to doctors who prescribed the creams, as well as kickbacks to patients.

The years since then have seen a number of plea deals, convictions and acquittals.

If Balotin had been convicted after a jury found him guilty in 2021 of health care fraud conspiracy and engaging in illegal financial transactions, sentencing guidelines would have recommended a prison term of 14 to 18 years, according to the sentencing memo.

But the discovery of additional evidence, including information about the witness’s previously undisclosed agreement to cooperate in exchange for avoiding charges in the pill case, led prosecutors to support a request for a second trial and then decide not to pursue the case after Balotin’s court-appointed lawyer, Patrick Korody, last month, began pushing for the case to be dismissed.

Last week, Howard granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss Balotin’s charges and close his case.