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Valley Doc Pleads Guilty To $3M Medicare Fraud For Procedures He Never Performed

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a San Fernando Valley doctor has pleaded guilty to scamming Medicare out of $3 million for procedures that were never performed.

U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek says 50-year-old Pezhman Ebrahimzadeh pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of health care fraud.

The owner of the Winnetka Medical Group provided cosmetic treatments, like liposuction, and obtained patient's Medicare information.

Between Sept. 2008 and April 2012, he sent bogus bills to Medicare claiming he had performed expensive procedures of revascularization, ablation of a bone tumor or placing a radiotherapy catheter in a breast.

Prosecutors say the doctor didn't even have the equipment to perform the procedures.

Ebrahimzadeh is due for sentencing on May 20 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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