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Medi-Cal fraud case results in longest-ever prison sentence

Compliance Monitor, May 12, 2004

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Orange County Superior Court sentenced Tahir Saeed Sherani to 18 years and eight months in prison for Medi-Cal fraud, according to a May 6 press release from the California attorney general's office.

Sherani was a key player in an organized crime ring that defrauded California's Medi-Cal system of more than $20 million.

The ring leader, Surinder Singh Panshi, was sentenced in September 2003 in California to 16 years in prison on four felony counts and was ordered to pay $2.5 million in restitution and $124,000 in back taxes to the state.

Sherani's sentence is the longest in California history for Medi-Cal fraud, the release said.

It is the result of "an intensive, five-year investigation into and prosecution of a sophisticated criminal operation that stole patient and physician identity information and submitted false claims in order to steal millions of dollars from the state's Medi-Cal system," said Attorney General Bill Lockyer.

Sherani was originally convicted in January on 21 felony counts, including identity theft, Medi-Cal fraud, grand theft, conspiracy, and tax evasion.

Sherani was ordered to pay criminal penalties of $5 million in addition to $2.5 million in restitution to Medi-Cal and $903,000 in back taxes to the state.

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