Indian-American Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Healthcare Fraud

A US court has sentenced an Indian-American to 15 years of prison and forfeit over $43 million after he pleaded guilty to charges of healthcare fraud. Husband and wife duo of Arun and Kiran Sharma of Texas have been accused of fraudulently sending medical bills to a number of healthcare organizations including Medicare, Medicaid and other private healthcares.

US Attorney Jose Angel Moreno revealed that the two doctors consistently prescribed pain killer jabs such as hydrocodone, Xanax and Soma before moving on to stronger drugs such as Oxycontin, morphine, methadone and fentanyl patches.

The number of patients too saw a remarkable rise, up from 50 a day to as high as 279 a day during a 10-year period from 1998 to 2009.

While Kiran Sharma will be sentenced on February 23, the US court revealed that the duo will have to forfeit their $700,000 home, nearly a million dollars of cash found in various safe deposit boxes as well as the $700,000 cash that investigators found in their home.


Source-Medindia