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Detroit-area physical therapist pleads guilty in Medicare fraud scheme
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Criminal Division Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Terrence Berg, and Inspector General of the Department of Health & Human Services Daniel R. Levinson today announced that Troy resident Syed Aziz entered guilty plea in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Detroit, to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the Medicare program.
In his plea, Aziz, a licensed physical therapist, admitted that he worked as a contract therapist for a co-conspirator who pleaded guilty to similar charges last month. Aziz admitted that he and his co-conspirators created fictitious files appearing to document certain therapy services provided to Medicare beneficiaries, when no such services had been provided. The fictitious services reflected in the files were billed to Medicare through sham Medicare providers controlled by the co-conspirators.
Aziz also admitted that during the course of the scheme, he signed approximately 400 fictitious physical therapy files, indicating that he had provided physical therapy services to Medicare beneficiaries, when in fact he had not; he was paid between $70 and $90 for each file he falsified; he falsified physical therapy files that supported claims to the Medicare program totaling approximately $1,895,000; and he was fully aware that Medicare was being billed for physical therapy services that he falsely indicated he had performed.
Aziz is scheduled to be sentenced on February 3, 2010. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force. Since March 2007, the Strike Force has obtained indictments of more than 331 individuals and organizations that collectively have billed the Medicare program for more than $720 million.
Source: United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan
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