Indictment Charges Doctors with Drug Distribution, Health Care Fraud and Money Laundering Offenses

Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that a federal grand jury in Bridgeport returned an indictment today charging Dr. BHARAT PATEL, 70, of Milford, and Dr. RAMIL MANSOUROV, 47, of Darien, with narcotics distribution, health care fraud and money laundering offenses.

PATEL was arrested on a federal criminal complaint on July 12 and is detained. MANSOUROV was apprehended by the Canada Border Services Agency on an immigration offense on July 13 and is currently detained in Canada.

As alleged in court documents, PATEL and MANSOUROV are physicians who operated out of Family Health Urgent Care, located at 235 Main Street in Norwalk. The medical practice was formerly known as Immediate Health Care, which was owned by PATEL. In approximately 2012, MANSOUROV purchased the practice from PATEL and renamed it Family Urgent Health Care, and PATEL continued to work at the practice. PATEL and MANSOUROV have been participating providers with Medicare and the Connecticut Medicaid Program. Beginning in approximately 2013, the Drug Enforcement Administration received information that PATEL and MANSOUROV may be writing prescriptions for controlled substances outside the scope of legitimate medical practice.

It is alleged that PATEL regularly provided prescriptions for narcotics, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, to patients that he knew were addicted or had been arrested for distributing or possessing controlled substances. On numerous occasions, PATEL provided prescriptions to patients who paid him $100 in cash for each prescription. In certain instances, PATEL would write prescriptions for individuals who were not his patients in exchange for cash. At times, when PATEL was not available, MANSOUROV provided PATEL’s patients with unnecessary prescriptions. PATEL and MANSOUROV also regularly provided post-dated prescriptions to individuals, sometimes with dates that matched future dates when the doctors would be out of the country.

It is alleged that certain individuals who paid PATEL cash for prescriptions paid for the filled prescriptions by using a state Medicaid card, and then illegally distributed the drugs. The investigation revealed that in 2014 alone, more than $50,000 in cash deposits were made into PATEL and his wife’s bank accounts, and that some of these funds were used to purchase PATEL’s current residence.

It is further alleged that between November 2013 and December 2016, MANSOUROV defrauded the state’s Medicaid program of more than $4 million by billing for home visits that he never made, billing for nursing home visits that he never made, billing for office visits that never happened, and billing for visits that he claimed took place on dates on which he was actually out of state or out of the country. Billing records also reveal that, on some occasions, MANSOUROV and PATEL billed Medicaid for the same patient on the same day at two different locations.

It is alleged that MANSOUROV moved some of the stolen funds to a bank account in Switzerland.

The five-count indictment charges PATEL and MANSOUROV with one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and hydrocodone, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years, and one count health care fraud, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years. The indictment also charges MANSOUROV with two counts and PATEL with one count of money laundering, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years.

The indictment also seeks the forfeiture of PATEL’s Milford residence, MANSOUROV’s Darien residence, $16,521.25 seized from a safe deposit box rented by PATEL, and money judgments equal to the proceeds of PATEL and MANSOUROV’s alleged criminal conduct.

U.S. Attorney Daly stressed that an indictment is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and each defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

This investigation is being conducted by the DEA’s New Haven Tactical Diversion Squad and the Norwalk Police Department, with the critical assistance of the Connecticut Office of the Attorney General. The DEA Tactical Diversion Squad includes officers from the Bristol, Greenwich, Hamden, Milford, New Haven, Shelton, Vernon and Wilton Police Departments.

U.S. Attorney Daly thanked the Canada Border Services Agency and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maine for their assistance in this matter.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Rahul Kale.