TOPEKA, KAN. – Two defendants received prison sentences following an $897,405 health care scheme where they used their pharmaceutical service to bill Medicare for thousands of unnecessary and illegal prescriptions, according to the United State’s Attorney.
According to court documents, the following defendants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud, mail fraud, and wire fraud:
- Steven Anthony Churchill, 39, of Boca Raton, Florida, was sentenced to 24 months in prison;
- Samson Kollelil Solomon, 28, of Pompano Beach, Florida, was sentenced to 24 months in prison; and
- Fawn Lickteig, 46, of Lawrence, Kansas, will be sentenced on November 10, 2026.
In March 2020, Steven Churchill bought Free State Pharmacy (FSP) in Lawrence, Kansas, but under the name of a now deceased, accused coconspirator. FSP operated as a mail-order pharmacy despite representing itself to Medicare as a retail pharmacy. FSP contracted with Fawn Lickteig’s company, Pharmacy Consulting, to complete and submit its applications to Medicare and other health care related government entities.
As part of the scheme, FSP acquired information from telemedicine companies, including names and addresses of patients. FSP employees then filled and shipped medications to these people even though the doctors who wrote the prescriptions had not physically examined or conducted proper telemedicine visits with the patients. FSP received calls from patients unexpectedly receiving medical products, and some patients returned the products to FSP…