Mississippi pharmacy owner gets 18 years in health care fraud case

A Mississippi pharmacy owner who took part in a scheme to defraud Tricare, the military health car program, was sentenced Friday to 18 years in jail.

Wade Ashley Walters, 54, was also ordered to pay more than $287 million, according to the Justice Department.

Mississippi pharmacy owner Wade Ashley Walters, 54, was sentenced Friday.

The Hattiesburg man pleaded guilty in July to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He was accused of distributing compounded medications that were medically unnecessary.

“The fraud committed by Walters and others in this investigation wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and deprived individuals of needed medical care,” David P. Burns, the acting assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a statement

Walters apologized Friday.

“I’m tired,” he said, according to The Associated Press. “I’m ready to move on and serve my time.”