Clinic owner imprisoned for health care fraud kickback scheme causing $49 million loss
US Department of Justice, September 18, 2026
DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division investigates and prosecutes those who commit fraud against the American People
HOUSTON – A 53-year-old Willis resident has been sentenced for conspiring to pay and receive health care kickbacks.
Henry Allen Gonzales pleaded guilty June 30, 2022.
Chief U.S. District Judge Charles Eskridge ordered Gonzales to serve 30 months in federal prison, to be immediately followed by one year of supervised release. In imposing the sentence, the court noted the significant financial loss to the Department of Labor Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (DOL-OWCP). The court also ordered Gonzales to pay more than $49 million in restitution to the DOL-OWCP.
“Gonzales treated injured workers as a personal ATM, bleeding a federal program of nearly $50 million through kickbacks, bogus prescriptions, and outright greed,” said U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz. “Under President Trump and Vice President Vance’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, this kind of theft from the American people will not be tolerated. My office will keep working hand-in-hand with DOJ’s National Fraud Enforcement Division to track down every fraudster preying on federal benefit programs and make them pay in full and behind bars.”
Gonzales owned and operated Option 1 Pain & Rehab Clinic, formerly Direct Medical Clinic, and received more than $2 million in kickbacks from Rayford ACP Pharmacy. In exchange, he referred prescriptions for expensive compounded medications to the pharmacy.
Gonzales also admitted paying marketers to refer DOL-OWCP claimants to his clinic and bribing doctors to sign prescriptions for the compounded medications.
After the Rayford ACP kickback scheme ended, Gonzales opened Farmacia and continued fraudulently billing DOL-OWCP.
From 2015 to 2018, Rayford ACP and Farmacia received approximately $49,014,183.03 in DOL-OWCP claims involving medically unnecessary compounded medications.
Gonzales was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
The Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service OIG, FBI – Houston, and Department of War Defense Criminal Investigative Service conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Olson and Alexander Alum prosecuted the case.
On April 7, the Department of Justice announced the creation of the National Fraud Enforcement Division, which is laser-focused on investigating and prosecuting those who commit fraud against the American people. The Department’s work to combat fraud supports President Trump’s Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, a whole-of-government effort chaired by Vice President J.D. Vance to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse within federal benefit programs.
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