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S. Texas doc charged with health care fraud and violating Iran embargo
A federal grand jury has indicted a urologist and a lawyer with ties to San Antonio and McAllen on charges related to health care fraud and violating a U.S. embargo with Iran.The San Antonio Express-News first reported in December 2010 on Hossein Lahiji and his wife, attorney Najmeh Vahid Lahiji, when they were arrested in San Antonio in a separate case charging that they secretly sent more than $1.8 million to Iran over nine years with the help of the founder of an Oregon charity. That, prosecutors contend, violates the U.S. embargo on the Middle East country. The U.S. has had a trade embargo against Iran since 1995 because it is considered a state sponsor of terrorism. Lahiji, a naturalized U.S. citizen who runs a urologist practice in McAllen and is an investor in the physician-owned Doctor's Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, told the Express-News in 2010 that the feds' allegations mistakenly place them in certain geographic areas when they were elsewhere. The pair moved to Texas from New Jersey. "There are a lot of inconsistencies (in the charges), and we hope to prove our innocence," Vahid, who runs her own law practice in San Antonio, also told the newspaper in 2010. But after further scrutiny of the pair, the U.S. attorney's office in Houston announced Thursday that a grand jury there returned a new indictment charging the pair with health care fraud, conspiracy to commit health care fraud, and for conspiring to violate Iranian sanctions. They are scheduled for trial in Houston on March 25. They pleaded not guilty Friday. Posted by: tipper 2013-03-16 |
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