A federal jury has convicted Eduardo Lopez, a former Nevada hospice executive, for his involvement in a wage-fixing conspiracy, as well as five counts of wire fraud. Potential sentencing includes several years of imprisonment and millions in criminal fees.

Lopez in 2023 was charged with agreeing to suppress and eliminate competition for home health and hospice nursing services between March 2016 and May 2019. Allegations of the three-year conspiracy to fix nursing wages in the Las Vegas area involve charges that Lopez sold his home health care staffing company for more than $10 million while fraudulently concealing the government’s ongoing criminal investigation from the buyer.

Lopez faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and $1 million in criminal fines for violations of the Sherman Act. The Sherman Antitrust Act prohibits interference in trade and economic competition that attempt to monopolize any part of commerce areas, including health care.

“Wage-fixing agreements are nakedly unlawful attempts at unjustly profiting off American workers,” said Assistant Attorney General Abigail A. Slater of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division in a recent statement. “Today’s verdict highlights what should be a clear message with antitrust crimes: the agreement is the crime. The nurses here deserved better and, under President Trump’s leadership, they will be protected.”

A federal judge issued an order preventing Lopez from presenting an intent-to-repay defense. Lopez contended that during the sale of his company Community Health to Solace Nevada, he committed to full repayment if the indemnification provision became complicated. A federal court ultimately ruled the intent-to-repay defense as irrelevant.

Lopez is scheduled to be sentenced on July 14. In addition to the wage-fixing conspiracy allegations, he is also charged with five counts of wire fraud. Lopez faces a maximum penalty of 20 years for each count of wire fraud.

“Hundreds of registered nurses and licensed practical nurses were affected by the defendant’s three-year conspiracy to fix wages,” said U.S. Attorney Sigal Chattah for the District of Nevada. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office is committed to prosecuting executives who seek to line their own pockets.”

The violations allegedly occurred while Lopez held overlapping executive roles at multiple hospices in the Las Vegas area. He was vice president and administrator at a publicly traded home health, hospice and personal care company. As of 2023 he was employed by Golden EA Capital, a private equity firm, according to a LinkedIn page that has since been taken down.

At one point in his career, Lopez held executive positions simultaneously at three different home health and hospice agencies, where he oversaw hiring, recruitment and retention of nurses and other health care workers.

He was vice president at Sierra Hospice & Home Health from 2018 to 2019, while holding the same position at Community Home Health Care Las Vegas from 2017 to 2021. Between 2017 and 2019, Lopez served as both an administrator for Christian Hospice Las Vegas and executive director of development at Coveant Hospice Care and Coveant Kids Care. These were just some of Lopez’s many hospice executive positions.

Investigations of the allegations were led by the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division San Francisco Office and the FBI’s International Corruption Unit with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nevada.

Prosecution for the case included Senior Litigation Counsel Jeffrey Cramer and Mikal Condon, Assistant Chief Andrew Mast, trial attorneys Paradi Javandel and Conor Bradley, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Anthony Lopez.

“The FBI, along with our partners, will not condone fraud schemes that undermine the wages of dedicated nurses and licensed practical nurses,” said Spencer L. Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI Las Vegas Field Office. “This guilty verdict serves as an important reminder that illegal activities will face strict consequences. We will remain committed to diligently pursuing individuals who exploit others for personal gain.”