Syed Jawed Akhtar-Zaidi

On August 27, 2014, Syed Jawed Akhtar-Zaidi was indicted on charges of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, health care fraud, distribution of controlled substances, and money laundering. Investigators believe that Akhtar-Zaidi and his co-conspirators billed Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance providers more than $10 million for false medical office visits and prescription drugs that were dispensed without a legitimate medical purpose and outside the usual course of professional practice.

Akhtar-Zaidi was a physician who operated a medical office called Pain Management of Northern Ohio. According to the indictment, from around September 2009 to around October 2013, Akhtar-Zaidi and his co-conspirators illegally distributed and dispensed thousands of doses of prescription painkillers to customers in the Northern District of Ohio and elsewhere. These prescriptions, primarily for oxycodone, oxymorphone, hydrocodone, hydromorphone, and morphine, were dispensed without adequately verifying the patient's identity or medical complaint, without an adequate and reliable medical history, without performing a complete or adequate mental or physical examination, without maintaining complete medical records, without establishing a true diagnosis, and without assessing the risk of abuse for the patients.

Akhtar-Zaidi used pre-signed blank prescription forms upon which his staff filled in the controlled substance and dosage to be prescribed. Investigators related that he and co-conspirators distributed the controlled substances to patients, knowing that the patients were addicted to drugs, were misusing or abusing drugs, or were requesting additional quantities in order to divert the drugs to others. Akhtar-Zaidi instructed staff at his office not to report customers to law enforcement whom they suspected of being "drug seeking" and/or "doctor shopping."

Investigators believe that Akhtar-Zaidi fled the United States around December 2013.