Clinic Sold Pain Pills to Patients Who Didn’t Need Them: Indictment

CHICAGO, IL - A medical clinic on Chicago’s North Side is accused of prescribing prescription pain pills to patients who didn’t need them in a 16-count indictment unsealed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office on Thursday.

The indictment alleges Mohammad Shariff, owner of the Midtown Medical Center in the city’s Uptown neighborhood conspired with Theodore Galvani, a physician, and Irfan Mohammad, a physician assistant, to provide oxycodone and hydrocodone to patients under false circumstances.

Patients would routinely meet with Mohammad and come up with a list of fabricated ailments and then with Galvani, who would write the prescriptions according to the indictment. The three defendants are accused of billing Medicare for more than $350,000 for the prescriptions and would demand cash from patients who weren’t insured. Patients allegedly received prescriptions without undergoing a meaningful physical examination in some cases and in others, Galvani would meet with multiple people at one time.

All three were charged with conspiracy to knowingly and intentionally dispense controlled substances outside the course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose, a charge that could carry a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

Shariff and Mohammed are also charged with eight counts of knowingly and intentionally dispensing oxycodone outside the course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose as well as six counts of dispensing hydrocodone outside the course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose. The count related to oxycodone is punishable by up to 20 years as well, and a ten year sentence could await a conviction related to the hydrocodone charge.

Shariff and Galvani were hit with additional charges of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.