Man sentenced after coaching inmates how to defraud drug program

A Michigan man was sentenced in New Haven on Friday to prison after coaching inmates how to lie about a drug or alcohol disorder to get admitted in a program that could result in a shortened prison term, federal prosecutors said.

Tony Tuan Pham, also known as “Anh Nguyen,” 52, was sentenced Friday to six years in prison followed by three years of supervised release, according to Acting United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut Leonard Boyle.

Pham was a managing partner of a limited liability company, RDAP Law Consultants, which operated out of Ohio and Michigan. From September 2012 to January 2019, Pham and others contacted federal criminal defendants and inmates through email and phone calls and offered to help them get into the Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program, or RDAP, the indictment states.

RDAP is a 500-hour substance abuse treatment program. To qualify for the program, an inmate just have a “diagnosable and verifiable drug or alcohol abuse disorder,” among other criteria, according to Boyle’s office. If an inmate successfully completes the program, they could get released from prison up to a year early.

Court documents state Pham coached clients how to “feign or exaggerate a drug or alcohol disorder,” including how to mimic withdrawal symptoms, and lie to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to get into the program, according to Boyle’s office and court documents.

The indictment states Pham and others sent unsolicited emails and letters to residents in West Virginia and Connecticut.

Pham and others in the company charged clients several thousand dollars. From September 2012 to January 2019, the company earned at least $2.6 million from its clients, the indictment states.

At the time when the scheme first began, Pham had recently been released from federal prison and was living in a halfway house, Boyle’s office said.

Police arrested Pham on Jan. 23, 2019. On Dec. 4, 2019, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of wire fraud.

Pham is released on $100,000 bond. He is required to report to prison Jan. 14, according to Boyle’s office.