FPD Credited with Substantial Help in Nabbing Medicaid Fraudster

Image: Pharmacy Tech, Wikimedia image

With "substantial cooperation" from the Franklin Police Department, Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell’s Office has indicted an individual for impersonating physicians to illegally obtain prescription drugs and then selling those drugs for profit as part of an elaborate drug diversion scheme. The indictment follows a joint investigation by the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Division, Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office and Franklin Police Department.

Pascal Girault Jr., also known as Pascal Schnaider Jr. Girault, age 21, of Stoughton, was indicted on Monday, September 11, 2023, by the Statewide Grand Jury in Suffolk Superior Court on 10 counts, including possession with intent to distribute a Class E substance, identity fraud, Medicaid false claims and uttering false prescriptions.

The AG’s Office alleges that between September 2021 and May 2022, Girault routinely called pharmacies within Norfolk, Suffolk, and Middlesex County with stolen physician identifications and posed as a physician or a member of the physician's staff to obtain prescriptions for promethazine and promethazine with codeine, which he then sold on the street for profit. The AG’s Office alleges that Girault falsified over two dozen prescriptions, 11 of which were paid for by Medicaid, and in some cases, also obtained azithromycin, an antibiotic commonly known as “Z-Pak”, in an apparent attempt to make his false promethazine prescriptions appear more legitimate.

Promethazine is a liquid antihistamine cough syrup that has a high street value and is also known as “drank”, “lean”, or “green.” When used illicitly, promethazine is commonly combined with various mixers to enhance flavor and the altering effects it gives when taken in large and dangerous quantities. Promethazine can also be prescribed with codeine, a Schedule III narcotic painkiller, already pre-mixed into the liquid.

This matter is being handled by the AG’s Medicaid Fraud Division and the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office. Substantial cooperation was also provided by  Stoughton Police Departments and the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the AG’s office.

The Massachusetts Medicaid Fraud Division receives 75 percent of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $5,542,963 for federal fiscal year 2023. The remaining 25 percent, totaling $1,847,641 for FY 2023, is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.