4 Jerusalem Arabs arrested in million shekel drug fraud case

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Four Arab residents of east Jerusalem, including two doctors, a pharmacist and the head of a city pharmacy, were under arrest Tuesday for allegedly taking part in a million shekel pharmaceutical scam against an Israeli health fund, police said. According to police, an undercover investigation, which was initiated following a complaint lodged by the Clalit health fund, revealed that over the last two years, the doctors would write out fictitious prescriptions for drugs worth hundreds of shekels each which the health fund was subsidizing, and they would then share the profits from the discounted drugs with the pharmacist and the head of the pharmacy. The fraud case reached NIS 1 million, police said. The four suspects were remanded in custody by a Jerusalem court on Wednesday for three to fours days each.