Jan.15, 2010

Thirteen people, including a doctor, were arraigned in federal court Thursday after agents raided four home health care agencies in Oakland and Macomb counties in connection with an alleged $14.5-million Medicare fraud scheme.

A prosecutor argued in court that the doctor -- Pramod Raval, 56, of Farmington Hills -- was a flight risk and had squirreled away at least $4.5 million from the scheme.

A federal magistrate set a $250,000 personal bond for him; most of the defendants received $10,000 personal bonds.

Others charged are: Muhammad Shahab, 50; Christopher Collins, 38; Hassan Akhtar, 26; Curtis Mallory, 35; Mohammed El-Fallal, 55; Jessica Vigil, 34; Tariq Chaudhary, 36; Faisal Chaudray, 31, and Visnhu Meda, 29. They were all indicted for conspiracy to commit health care fraud.

In addition, Shahab; Guy Ross, 48; Lura Barrett, 61, and Stephen Cartier, 50, were charged with conspiracy to violate the anti-kickback statute. Shahab and Akhtar also were charged with two counts of money laundering.

The federal indictment claims that Collins and Mallory recruited patients and paid them kickbacks for their Medicare information and signatures on documents that then were submitted for Medicare reimbursement.

Investigators also claim El-Fallal used the identity of a licensed physician to sign physician referrals for home health services that were unnecessary and not performed.

Detroit FBI Special Agent in Charge Andrew Arena said that a health care fraud strike force set up recently in Detroit will continue pursuing similar cases. "There are a lot of different scams out there and we've seen an increase in health care fraud in southeast Michigan over the past two years," he said.