A 70-year-old physician in Orange County has been sentenced to five years in jail after orchestrating a fraudulent scheme to deceive Medi-Cal and steal $20 million. Mohamed Waddah El-Nachef, a resident of Laguna Hills, pleaded guilty on September 28th of last year to multiple felonies, including defrauding Medi-Cal, making fraudulent health benefit claims, submitting false insurance benefit claims, soliciting and accepting unauthorized business, conspiring to engage in unauthorized medical practice, and grand theft. Additionally, El-Nachef admitted to aggravated white-collar crime enhancements ranging from $100,000 to $500,000.
The court also ordered El-Nachef to pay $2.3 million in restitution and revoked his medical license. The prosecution of this case was handled by the Attorney General’s Office.
“El-Nachef, abusing his role as a physician, manipulated our state programs and contributed to illicit pharmaceutical sales on the streets of Southern California, all for his personal gain,” stated Attorney General Rob Bonta in a press release last year. “Today, he is being held accountable for his actions and is required to give back the funds he stole from the people of California. The California Department of Justice will never tolerate abuses of power, no matter the scale. As the people’s attorney, I am dedicated to safeguarding programs designed to assist our most vulnerable residents.”
According to court documents filed by the state Attorney General’s Office when El-Nachef was charged in March 2020, he assisted two convicted felons, Steve Fleming and Oscar Abrons, in a scheme to acquire expensive pharmaceuticals for sale on the black market. El-Nachef knowingly prescribed HIV medications, anti-psychotics, and opioids to over 1,000 beneficiaries referred to him by Fleming and Abrons. The court documents revealed that El-Nachef did not conduct thorough medical examinations or verify the necessity of the prescribed drugs for the patients.
“The majority of the patients did not have HIV and did not legitimately require psychotic medications or controlled drugs. These medications were funded by Medi-Cal, which remained unaware of El-Nachef’s participation in a fraudulent drug trafficking scheme,” stated the court documents.
Prosecutors stated that the scheme occurred between June 2014 and April 2016. El-Nachef operated at two clinics, one in Anaheim and another in Los Angeles, where he prescribed these drugs.
Denial of responsibility! VigourTimes is an automatic aggregator of Global media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, and all materials to their authors. For any complaint, please reach us at – [email protected]. We will take necessary action within 24 hours.
