Out Of Prison, Disgraced Doctor Faces New Fraud Charges

WHITE PLAINS, NY — A former orthopedic surgeon, out of prison on supervised release, was arrested Tuesday for fraud and identity theft. Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Spyros Panos, 49, of Hopewell Junction, was charged with wire fraud, health care fraud and aggravated identity theft.

Panos had previously been convicted of health care fraud in October 2013. He pleaded guilty and surrendered his license to practice medicine.

In April 2014, Panos began serving a 54-month sentence in prison. He was released in September 2016 to a halfway house and, a month later, to home confinement.

Since March 2017, he’s been serving a two-year term of supervised release.

The arrest Tuesday, which took place at Panos’ home in Dutchess County, was in connection with a scheme in which he assumed the identity of a licensed orthopedic surgeon and obtained more than $860,000 in payments for reviewing patient files in workers compensation cases.

According investigators, Panos set up the latest scheme in December 2013, which was after he pleaded guilty and before he began serving his sentence, and involved using credentialing information of another orthopedic surgeon to apply to do peer review services for workers compensation cases.

He opened a local credit union account and had payments of more than $239,000 for services deposited to it.

After he was released from prison, law enforcement officials said, another account was opened at the same credit union in December 2016. Between then and October 2017, more than $636,500 in payments from review companies were deposited.

Money was removed from the accounts by a family member through cash withdrawals or checks and was then deposited into a family account, authorities said.

If convicted, the wire fraud charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000. The health care fraud carries a maximum sentence of 10 years and a maximum fine of $250,000. The identity theft sentence requires a two-year prison term to be served consecutive to a sentence imposed for the wire and health care fraud charges.

Image via Shutterstock.