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# Ex-PCA Head Sentenced to 6 Months in Jail
- URL: https://www.fdaweb.com/ex-pca-head-sentenced-to-6-months-in-jail/
- Published: 2024-02-29T12:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-14T14:24:13.000Z
- Author: David McFarland
- Tags: Drugs, #legacy-id-D5156456

Former pharmacy compounder Patient Care America (PCA) CEO and president **Patrick Smith** (Palm Beach Gardens, FL) was sentenced to six months in prison for lying to federal agents who were investigating PCA for various health care fraud offenses. The FDA Office of Criminal Investigations case investigated PCA over health care fraud and payment of kickbacks to marketing groups that solicited TRICARE beneficiaries on behalf of PCA.

“Smith falsely claimed, for example, that he played no role in hiring the marketing groups and that he didn’t know they were directly soliciting TRICARE beneficiaries,” a [government release](https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/press-releases/former-south-florida-pharmacy-ceo-sentenced-prison-lying-federal-investigators?ref=fdaweb.com) says. “In all, PCA paid over $40 million in kickbacks to the marketers for recruiting and referring TRICARE beneficiary prescriptions for expensive, unnecessary compounded medications to PCA. To date, over a dozen of PCA’s marketers and employees have been convicted and sentenced for their roles in the scheme.”