Detroit jury convicts physician for healthcare fraud conspiracy

Troy, Mich., physician Toe Myint was convicted today by a Detroit jury of conspiracy to commit health care fraud in a $4.2 million Medicare Fraud scheme, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division; U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade of the Eastern District of Michigan; Special-Agent-in-Charge Andrew G. Arena of the FBI's Detroit Field Office; and Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

After a week-long trial in Detroit, the jury convicted Dr. Myint of one count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud. The conspiracy count carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. Dr. Myint was acquitted on charges of filing three specific false claims. Prior to trial, 10 of Dr. Myint's co-conspirator defendants pleaded guilty to a variety of Medicare fraud related charges.

Evidence at trial showed that Dr. Myint was the physician at Sacred Hope Center, a Southfield, Mich., clinic that purported to specialize in providing infusion therapy to Medicare beneficiaries. Evidence established that Dr. Myint ordered medications for patients that he knew were not needed. Specifically, Dr. Myint signed patient files ordering infusions and injections of corticosteroids and other medications, despite being aware that the patients did not need the drugs and that Medicare was being billed for the drugs.

Trial evidence established that patients were not referred to Sacred Hope Center or Dr. Myint by their real physicians for any legitimate purpose, but rather were recruited to come to the clinic through the payment of kickbacks. In the six months between September 2006 and March 2007, Dr. Myint and his co-conspirators caused approximately $4.2 million to be submitted to the Medicare program for services that were unnecessary and never provided.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Trial Attorney John K. Neal and Trial Attorney Benjamin D. Singer of the Criminal Division's Fraud Section. The FBI and the HHS Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) conducted the investigation. The case was brought as part of the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, supervised by the Criminal Division's Fraud Section and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan.

Since their inception in March 2007, Strike Force operations in seven districts have obtained indictments of 508 individuals who collectively have falsely billed the Medicare program for more than $1 billion. In addition, HHS's Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, working in conjunction with the HHS-OIG, are taking steps to increase accountability and decrease the presence of fraudulent providers.