Defiant ex-surgeon sentenced to 111 months for health care fraud

Spyros Panos, a former orthopedic surgeon from Hopewell Junction, has been sentenced to prison for more than twice has long as a previous imprisonment for committing health care fraud yet again.

Panos, 54, pleaded guilty to the fraud and to identity theft two years ago and then continually claimed he was innocent and repeatedly delayed the sentencing.

But on the day of reckoning, Nov. 30, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas rejected Panos’s hope for little or no jail time and sentenced him to nine years and three months in prison.

In 2013, Panos surrendered his state license to practice medicine, in anticipation of pleading guilty to health care fraud for stealing more than $2.5 million from Medicare and private health insurance companies. In 2014 he was sentenced to 54 months in prison.

But between giving up his medical license and going to prison, according to court records, he was scheming to commit a new fraud.

He impersonated another doctor and sold peer review reports to six companies that needed a licensed doctor’s opinion in workers compensation cases.

He stopped the scheme while in prison but resumed selling the reports after he was released, according to court records, receiving $876,390 for his work.

He also submitted false documents to delay sentencing in the current case, according to court records, claiming that he had tested positive for Covid-19 and then suffered from a related pneumonia.

In 2014, Panos was contrite when he was sentenced. He said he took full responsibility for his crimes, in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Nelson S. Roman.

He asked the judge for a chance to redeem himself.

“I have learned from my mistakes and I am a changed man,” he said. “I have been atoning for my sin for the past three years and will continue to do so for the rest of my life.”

But before the latest sentencing Panos was defiant. He objected to the “validity and voluntariness” of his guilty plea, according to a June 16 sentencing memorandum by his former attorney, Daniel A. Hochheiser.

He denied posing as another doctor or engaging in identity theft.

He denied writing any reports, arguing that he submitted notes to the peer review companies that they used to create their own reports.

He denied stealing anything, arguing that the peer review companies profited from his work by selling their reports to insurance companies and hospitals.

He denied impeding justice by submitting false information.

“Panos maintains his innocence,” the Hochheiser memo states, “and thus objects to the imposition of any sentence.”

But Panos understood that the court was likely to sentence him to more than the 4 years and six months received for his previous crime. Hochheiser suggested two years and requested no more than five.

The day before his sentencing, Panos, acting as his own attorney, submitted a motion to dismiss the indictment on the basis of prosecutorial misconduct.

He also asked for the return of seized property, including prescription pads, a medical bag with tools and instruments, and an application for reinstatement of his state medical license.