A Spring pharmacist faces up to five years in federal prison after a jury convicted him July 11 of paying more than $2 million in kickbacks to funnel patients to his Rayford Road pharmacy.

Tronown Thomas owned and operated Rayford ACP Pharmacy in Spring. A federal jury in Houston found him guilty of conspiracy to pay health care kickbacks after a five-day trial, deliberating more than a day before returning the verdict, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Thomas paid the owner of a Houston pain clinic more than $2 million in exchange for referrals of patients insured through the Department of Labor's Office of Workers' Compensation Programs. Those patients had been prescribed high-reimbursement compounded medications, which Thomas then billed to the federal program.

Between November 2015 and September 2017, Thomas and Rayford ACP Pharmacy collected more than $20 million in reimbursements from the workers' compensation program, according to Woodlands Online.

Thomas's defense argued the payments were for legitimate marketing services.

The jury rejected that claim.

Thomas was originally charged in May 2022 alongside other Houston-area residents connected to the same scheme. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathryn Olson and Alexander Alum, with the investigation involving the Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General, Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General, FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett, who presided over the trial, scheduled sentencing for Nov. 12. Thomas faces up to five years in prison and a maximum $250,000 fine. He remains free on bond until that hearing.

Residents who suspect health care fraud can report it to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General at 1-800-HHS-TIPS.