Dana Point man indicted in healthcare fraud now faces tax-evasion charge

Orange County Register (CA)

Jul. 21--A 36-year-old Dana Point man faces a tax-evasion charge on top of being previously indicted by a federal grand jury related to a healthcare fraud case.

Matthew Hogan Peters was charged this week with tax evasion, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Peters is accused of not paying approximately $5.49 million in federal income taxes from 2014 through 2017, authorities said.

Prosecutors said Peters diverted millions of dollars in corporate revenue for personal uses, including funding real estate projects in Belize and buying homes in places including Nevada and Laguna Beach.

In southeast Portland, Oregon, Peters owned and operated compounding pharmacies, which combine ingredients to create drugs tailored for each patient.

"The pharmacies filled prescriptions for, among other things, compounded pain creams, a lucrative line of products," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement.

"Private and federal healthcare insurance programs reimburse compounding pharmacies for such creams at rates far higher than comparable over-the-counter or bulk-manufactured medications," the statement said.

He was indicted by a federal grand jury in December on charges that he submitted dozens of fraudulent patient documents in support of reimbursement claims to CVS Caremark, which manages prescription benefits for the national pharmacy.

From April 2014 to May 2015, Peters sought reimbursements of more than $3.4 million from CVS Caremark, which then paid him nearly $1.69 million, prosectutors say.

In an audit, about 185 claims were determined to be lacking records proving customers received the medications. To explain the discrepancies, Peters submitted written documents each purportedly signed by a patient but it is believed he created each of the signatures himself, prosecutors said.

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