A dentist from Pound Ridge pleaded guilty Wednesday for his role in a $21 million Medicaid fraud scheme involving three Connecticut dental practices.
The dentist, Mehran Zamani, 50, was the face of the scheme that started in January 2009 and lasted until March 2011. During that time, Zamani signed Medicaid provider applications on the behalf of Gary Anusavice, a convicted felon and former dentist, who was not eligible for the low-income health care program.
Anusavice hired Zamani to operate dentist offices in Stamford, Trumbull and West Haven. A statement from Deirdre M. Daly, U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut, said Zamani failed to disclose on Medicaid provider applications for the three practices that Anusavice had an ownership interest in the businesses even though Zamani was aware of Anusavice”™s criminal background.
The Connecticut Medicaid program reimbursed the dental practices nearly $21 million during the scheme.
Zamani is scheduled to be sentenced July 6. He faces a maximum term of three years in prison on a count of obstructing the administration of a federal health care program. In a settlement resolving civil matters, Zamani will pay $200,000 and give up his Hartford dental office as well as $1.9 million from Medicaid that had been suspended.
Anusavice was sentenced to more than eight years in prison in 2013 and was ordered to pay nearly $17 million in restitution, cash, back taxes and state fees, in addition to losing his Rhode Island home, yacht and Mercedes.
