Dewmar International BMC Inc (DEWM)

[Hattiesburg Patriot]

Moran's Pharmacist sentenced today to 16 months for making $21,000 in commissions from his sole marketer; which stemmed from $350k in fraudulent billing to TRICARE. The sentencing carried up to 30 months, but Judge Starrett gave Richmond a break for his cooperation and him taking responsibility for his mistakes. Richmond will be on probation for 3 years after his incarceration and must repay over $350,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors praised Silas K. Richmond for reaching out to prosecutors early on and helping them to "unwind" the fraud. Prosecutors even argued against the sentencing enhancements presented by the Department of Probation in Richmond's Pre-Sentencing Investigative Report. Judge Starrett told Richmond that he felt like he (Richmond) was a "stand up guy" and was sorry to see Richmond in this situation. Richmond received a 3 point 5k downward departure in his sentencing guidelines and threw out the 2 point enhancement categorizing Richmond as a "ring leader" in the fraud. Starrett opined this was not the case with Richmond.

Silas Richmond worked for Marco Moran, a pharmacist and CEO of Dewmar International, in the Jackson Mississippi area pharmacy. Moran plead guilty to over $12 million in healthcare fraud, but Moran also funneled over $5 million of the fraud proceeds from Medworx, LLC through a subsidiary of Dewmar, which let to a spike in stock price. Marco Moran is scheduled to be sentenced in March.