Amir Mortazavi’s indictment was a February 2024 federal case in the Northern District of Texas that charged the Dallas-area pharmaceutical executive as the lead defendant in an alleged pharmacy kickback conspiracy involving ten physicians and thirteen other defendants. All charges against him were dismissed on February 13, 2026, after the government itself moved to drop the case over problems with how the indictment was drafted.1Texas Lawbook. Federal Judge Dismisses Texas Kickback Indictment Involving 10 Doctors, Pharma Executives
Who Amir Mortazavi Is
Mortazavi is a certified public accountant who moved into healthcare in 2007, running a San Antonio-based skilled nursing and home health company before selling it. He later held executive roles at Next Health, a holding company that owned several pharmacies. Next Health’s majority owners, Andrew Hillman and Semyon Narosov, had pleaded guilty in October 2018 to charges tied to the separate Forest Park Medical Center fraud in Dallas. Outside pharmacy work, Mortazavi founded Vitalyc MedSpa, a Texas chain of aesthetic clinics.
What the February 2024 Indictment Charged
On February 21, 2024, a federal grand jury returned the indictment in United States v. Mortazavi, case number 3:24-cr-00049, before Judge Karen Gren Scholer. The case was designated complex litigation.2CourtListener. United States v. Mortazavi
Fourteen defendants were charged: ten physicians (Robert Leisten, Amy Haase, Arnold Farbstein, Barry Weinstein, Eric Berkman, Jorge Cuza, Katherine McCarty, James Ellis, David Wolf, and Walter Strash), Mortazavi and fellow executive Arvin Zeinali, and two management service organizations, Trinity Champion Healthcare Partners, LLC and Hexamed Business Solutions, LLC.3U.S. Department of Justice. Fourteen Indicted in Pharmaceutical Kickback Case
Every defendant except Strash faced three counts: conspiracy to violate the Travel Act through the Texas Commercial Bribery Statute, conspiracy to deny patients honest services, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Strash faced only the first two. The Travel Act count carried up to five years in prison; the other two counts carried up to twenty years each.3U.S. Department of Justice. Fourteen Indicted in Pharmaceutical Kickback Case
The Alleged Scheme
Prosecutors alleged that pharmacies identified high-profit prescriptions, especially expensive compounded pain creams, and recruited doctors to write them in exchange for a share of profits. The payments were disguised as returns on pharmacy “investments,” with ownership stakes sold for nominal sums of $1,000 to $1,250. Nearly all pharmacy revenue, the indictment said, came from prescriptions written by the physician-owners.3U.S. Department of Justice. Fourteen Indicted in Pharmaceutical Kickback Case
Money allegedly moved through layers. The pharmacies kept roughly 45 to 55 percent of net profits and paid the rest to Med Left, a marketing firm owned by Vinson Woodlee. Med Left then distributed funds to management service organizations, including Trinity Champion, Hexamed, and Eagle Ridge, which in turn paid the prescribing doctors based on weekly reports tracking their prescription volume and profits.3U.S. Department of Justice. Fourteen Indicted in Pharmaceutical Kickback Case
The indictment described a May 2018 meeting in which Mortazavi and Zeinali met with a confidential source posing as a representative for doctors willing to be paid for prescriptions. According to prosecutors, the executives insisted payments be routed through the MSO structure to maintain the appearance of legitimacy, and Mortazavi later met separately with doctors to work out reporting and profit-sharing details.4D Magazine. Ten Physicians and Local Execs Indicted in Pharmacy Kickback Scheme
Why the Case Fell Apart
The prosecution ran into structural problems with the indictment. Paul Coggins, Mortazavi’s lead defense attorney at Troutman Pepper Locke, said the original indictment “reached back ten years and had a duplicity problem, merging two different conspiracies into one.” Duplicity, in criminal procedure, means a single count improperly charges more than one distinct offense, a defect that can prejudice defendants and confuse jurors.5Troutman Pepper Locke. Government Drops Case Over Referrals for Kickback Scheme
On January 6, 2026, the government filed a superseding indictment that appeared aimed at fixing the duplicity issue.2CourtListener. United States v. Mortazavi According to Coggins, the fix created a new problem: the restructured charges fell outside the five-year statute of limitations. “I thought the original indictment had stretched conspiracy law past the breaking point,” he said. “They had reached back a decade.”6Troutman Pepper Locke. Federal Judge Dismisses Texas Kickback Indictment Involving 10 Doctors, Pharma Executives
The Dismissal
The government moved to dismiss. On February 13, 2026, Judge Scholer granted dismissal of all charges against Mortazavi, and the superseding indictment against all fourteen defendants was dismissed as well.1Texas Lawbook. Federal Judge Dismisses Texas Kickback Indictment Involving 10 Doctors, Pharma Executives
Coggins framed the outcome as one both sides agreed on in the end. “We didn’t agree with the government on much in this case,” he said, “but we did agree that the interest of justice demanded that the case be dismissed.”5Troutman Pepper Locke. Government Drops Case Over Referrals for Kickback Scheme He also noted that physician ownership of pharmacy stakes is legal so long as the ownership is not contingent on the prescriptions those doctors write.
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Vinson Woodlee, the Med Left owner identified as the financial conduit in the alleged chain, pleaded guilty separately to conspiracy to solicit and receive kickbacks for referrals to federal healthcare programs.3U.S. Department of Justice. Fourteen Indicted in Pharmaceutical Kickback Case His case remained open as of 2026.7CourtListener. United States v. Woodlee A related civil suit, United Healthcare Services, Inc. v. Rossel, et al., was pending in the same district, with the court finding factual overlap between its allegations and the criminal case.8GovInfo. United Healthcare Services v. Rossel
The indictment also drew attention because of Mortazavi’s political giving. In 2025, the Dallas Morning News reported that he had donated $50,000 to the Texas Attorney General campaign of Aaron Reitz. Reitz defended the contribution as “completely legal and ethical,” citing the presumption of innocence and noting it was a small share of his $2.1 million fundraising total. Mortazavi was one of two indicted Reitz donors; the other, Dr. Anosh Ahmed, had given $100,000.9The Dallas Morning News. A Second Donor to Aaron Reitz’s Attorney General Campaign Faces Federal Indictment The charges against Mortazavi were dismissed roughly seven months later.