Ex-Mayo Clinic employee charged with attempting to provide ISIS support
A former medical coordinator for Mayo Clinic was arrested at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on Thursday while trying to get to Syria to fight “on the front line” of ISIS.
The FBI arrested 28-year-old Muhammad Masood after he checked in for his flight to Los Angeles. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Minnesota has charged Masood with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, including wanting to serve as a fighter and combat medic and talking of his desire to enact a lone wolf-style attack. Masood made his first appearance in court Thursday.
Masood is a licensed medical doctor in Pakistan working in the United States on an H-1B Visa for the past two years in the Mayo Clinic Department of Cardiovascular Diseases. In a statement Thursday, Mayo Clinic communications manager Ginger Plumbo said that Masood was not a Mayo Clinic employee at the time of his arrest. It is unclear when his employment ended.
From January to March, Masood made several statements pledging his allegiance to ISIS and its leader, according to charges.
“i want to fight on the front line as well as help the wounded brothers,” he said over an encrypted social media app to confidential informant sources, according to charges. “as i doctor i want to help mujahedeen [sic] on the ground,” he wrote. According to charges, “mujahedeen” refers to those engaged in jihad.
On Feb. 19, Masood traveled to Bloomington to meet with a confidential informant he believed would help him join ISIS. They met in the parking lot of a shopping mall and drove to a nearby hotel. They patched in another informant via video conference, who Masood believed to be an overseas commander vetting him.
Left out of the Star Tribune story is this line from an AP story:
He explained that he wanted to make the trip because he “hates smiling at the passing kuffar just to not make them suspicios.” The affidavit said kuffar is an Arabic term meaning nonbeliever or non-Muslim.
I don’t know if you can call him an Ohio man (or a Michigan man either), looks like another ‘New American’ doctor taking advantage of women and America!
This sicko is in big trouble! Complaint filed with the medical board said he “had been drugging and raping women for years.”
Is he one of those immigrant entrepreneurs that Michael Bloomberg’s New American Economyis always raving about?
Here (below) is the sanitized Fox News version of the story involving Dr. Manish Gupta and the charges against him. (I am assuming he is of Indian origin.)
And if you want the R-rated story (this comes with a warning) see it at ClickonDetroit.
Ohio plastic surgeon charged with drugging, raping women on camera
A plastic surgeon primarily based in Ohio was arrested Friday by the FBI for allegedly drugging multiple women to the point of unconsciousness and raping them on camera.
Dr. Manish Gupta, 49, is charged with illegally dispensing controlled substances, aggravated sexual abuse and sex trafficking, Toledo’s WTVG reported. He was booked into Lucas County Corrections Center in Toledo Friday afternoon after a federal search warrant on his phone, residence, personal vehicle and two offices in Lucas County uncovered sex toys, camera equipment, SD cards and vials of Diazepam and Ketamine, which are controlled substances not used in his medical practice, according to WTVG.
While visiting Los Angeles in 2016 to attend a plastic surgery convention, Gupta allegedly arranged for sex with a high-end escort, drugged her to the point of unconsciousness and raped her, according to a court filing in the U.S. District Court in Toledo.
The woman did not file a police report at the time. She took an at-home drug test that showed she had signs of benzodiazepine, a type of medication known as a tranquilizer, in her system, Toledo’s WTOL reported, citing the court filing. She later visited the Rape Treatment Center at the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, where she had a rape kit exam performed, WTVG reported.
The woman researched Gupta in an online database used by sex workers to make others aware of possibly dangerous individuals, according to the filing. She said she found multiple other women had reported a man either matching Gupta’s name or description, claiming he drugged, raped and possibly recorded them without their consent, WTOL reported.
Gupta is a board-certified plastic surgeon and medical doctor licensed in both Ohio and Michigan. He owns Artisan Cosmetic Surgery, which has two offices in Ohio and one in Michigan, WTVG reported.
The FBI launched an investigation into the claims against Gupta in January 2019. The investigation revealed that in 2014, an employee working for Gupta found multiple SDs with videos showing the plastic surgeon performing sex acts on motionless women who appeared to be unconscious. In February of this year, the State of Ohio Medical Board received a complaint claiming Gupta had been drugging and raping women for years.
BTW, I found a photo on line of Gupta and his female staffers although his social media accounts have been removed from on-line. I was going to post the photo, but chose not to because when you read more about the case you will see that some of his staff participated in bringing him to justice. I wouldn’t want there to be any reprisals against them.
Some of the headlines call Moses deGraft-Johnson a “Tallahassee doctor,” but African media doesn’t pull punches and refers to him as a “Ghanaian doctor.”
Tallahassee doctor indicted for more than $23M in healthcare fraud
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) — A federal grand jury has indicted a Tallahassee doctor, accusing him of more than $23 million in healthcare fraud.
According to court documents, Moses deGraft-Johnson owned and operated the Heart and Vascular Institute of North Florida since September 2015. Kimberly Austin – his office manager – was also indicted.
Duel citizen Moses deGraft-Johnson benefited the US economy! NOT!
Federal prosecutors said in court Friday afternoon they believe there were more than 3,600 surgeries billed over the last five years, with 85 to 90% of them being fraudulent.
The 58 count indictment, which was unsealed Thursday, alleges deGraft-Johnson defrauded Medicare and Medicaid by billing them for dozens of procedures that he never performed.
A detailed list shows each of the claims was for more than $21,000. Federal prosecutors said in court that the amount of money that was improperly billed reached $23 million.
A later motion alleges deGraft-Johnson’s calendar showed he performed 14 surgeries in one day.
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The indictment contends deGraft-Johnson wasn’t even in the United States on some of those days, but rather was traveling to Madrid, London and other cities in Ghana and China.
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Culture of corruption? Since we have had so many fraud and crime stories perpetrated by Nigerians, I figured I would use this map to show you where both Ghana and Nigeria are located.
Federal prosecutors requested in court Friday that deGraft-Johnson be detained until his trial, saying the doctor poses a “serious risk of flight.”
Prosecutors contend deGraft-Johnson is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Ghana. They say he has “the motive, the means and the opportunity to flee from the United States to Ghana.”
According to prosecutors, he has two passports, both showing that he has dual citizenship for the United States and Ghana.
Unlimited hubris!
Prosecutors also contend that deGraft-Johnson has stated his ultimate long-term professional goal is “to be the President of Ghana.”
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Court documents indicate deGraft-Johnson deposited more than $32 million in health care funds into his bank account between November 2015 and August 2019. Prosecutors say that the majority of funds were transferred to other accounts.
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At one point, deGraft-Johnson told federal agents he had no cash that was not in a bank, but agents found $40,000 cash at one of his residences.
“This suggests that there may be other cash hoards in any of Defendant’s five other residences,” prosecutors wrote.
The doctor’s other residences are located in Miami, Manhattan, Hampton and Texas, prosecutors said in court.
Prosecutors also detailed lavish spending, including millions spent on Tiffany and Cartier jewelry, two Mercedes, and the recent leases of a Ferrari and a Lamborghini.
Honestly, I think Trump is making a big mistake not highlighting some of the major Medicare and Medicaid fraud prosecutions his administration is undertaking.
At every rally he should tell a story or two about how they caught some big crooks stealing from middle class Americans!
To be fair and balanced he could throw in a few American fraudsters along with the ‘new American’ ones!
Florida? Texas? Michigan? California? Which state has the most fraudulent medical practitioners?
Is the word out all over the world for foreign docs to head to the Detroit area and set up scams to rip-off American taxpayers? It seems that way considering the number of cases of fraud I’ve reported from Michigan.
See this post about Opiod pushing docs in Michigan because they aren’t just ripping us off financially, but hurting Americans as well.
Metro Detroit physicians found guilty of defrauding Medicare, prescribing unnecessary opioids
Four Metro Detroit physicians were found guilty of health care fraud for their roles in a scheme to administer unnecessary back injections to patients in exchange for prescriptions of medically unnecessary opioids.
Officials said patients were required to get the injections in order to get the prescriptions. Some of the opioids were resold by drug dealers.
Spilios Pappas, 62, of Lucas County, Ohio, Joseph Betro, 59, of Oakland County, Michigan, Tariq Omar, 62, of Oakland County, Michigan, and Mohammed Zahoor, 53, of Oakland County, Michigan, were each found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud and wire fraud, and one count of health care fraud.
“These physicians subjected patients to medically unnecessary injections to reap millions in fraudulent billings. Worse still, they incentivized those treatments by offering opioid prescriptions in sky-high dosages meant for the terminally ill,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Today’s verdict shows that the Department will root out physicians who let dollar signs rather than medical need drive their treatment of patients.”
Evidence at trial showed that from 2008 to 2016 Pappas, Betro, Omar and Zahoor worked at numerous medical clinics in Michigan and Ohio, which were operated under the name of the Tri-County Group (Tri-County) and owned by co-conspirator Mashiyat Rashid.
While working at Tri-County they engaged in a scheme to defraud Medicare of over $150 million by billing for medically unnecessary facet joint injections, unnecessary urinary drug screens, home health and more.
Officials said they offered prescriptions of oxycodone 30 mg to patients who were in pain, drug dealers, or opioid addicts. Those patients were forced to submit to unnecessary facet injections for the prescription.
The four defendants were all ranked in the top 25 doctors for dollars paid by Medicare for facet joint injections, even though they only worked a few hours a week. The defendants practice was described during trial as an assembly line, where the four defendants earned anywhere from $1,100 to $3,500 an hour for performing the injections.
Seniors: If you are seeing a doctor, especially for pain medications and you see something suspicious, report it to Medicare.gov. Check your Medicare statements carefully. One friend who was receiving pain meds told me that her doctor had billed Medicare for a much larger amount than she was prescribed. Maybe by mistake? But, best to report anything suspicious!
Editor: Sorry I am behind in posting here at ‘Frauds and Crooks’. That is because Refugee Resettlement Watchhas been taking so much of my time in recent days and weeks.
Unlicensed doctor who treated patients in Morris, Warren pleads guilty
A Long Valley doctor with offices in Morris and Warren counties pleaded guilty on Wednesday to bilking millions of dollars from insurance companies for unlicensed medical care.
How would you like to get medical treatment from this guy, Paramjit Singh?
Parminderjeet S. Sandhu, 66, of Long Valley, and Paramjit Singh, 62, of Ohio, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Peter G. Sheridan in Trenton federal court to charges of conspiracy to commit health care fraud.
In 2017, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito filed the charges and said Sandhu, who was licensed to practice in New Jersey, knew Singh’s medical license was suspended, yet still allowed him to care for patients in the three locations he owned and operated under the name Medical Care Associates Family Practice and Urgent Care.
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Records show that from August 2014 through October 2017, Sandhu and Singh billed $2.2 million to Medicare and private health insurance companies for medical services they claimed were provided by Sandhu, but were actually performed by Singh.
Honestly, I think Trump is making a big mistake not highlighting some of the major Medicare and Medicaid fraud prosecutions his administration is undertaking.
