Central Texas chiropractor Craighead gets 14 years in referral scam

AUSTIN — A Central Texas chiropractor must serve 14 years in prison and repay the federal government nearly $18 million in a workers' compensation referral scam.

Prosecutors say Garry Wayne Craighead of Leander ran clinics mainly treating injured Postal Service workers covered by the Federal Employees' Compensation Act.

Craighead was sentenced Friday by a federal judge in Austin. The 49-year-old pleaded guilty in December to solicitation and receipt of illegal remunerations in federal health programs and to engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.

He operated clinics in Austin, San Antonio, Killeen, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth and Weslaco.

From 2008 through 2015, Craighead solicited and received kickbacks from health care providers in return for referring patients to those businesses for services, authorities said.