{"id":736333,"date":"2026-04-18T08:40:30","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:40:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/736333\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T08:40:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T08:40:30","slug":"michigan-surgeon-gets-prison-time-for-7m-medicare-fraud-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/736333\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan surgeon gets prison time for $7M Medicare fraud scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A West Bloomfield, Michigan, surgeon will spend a year in prison for his role in a $7 million Medicare fraud scheme, federal prosecutors said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Mustafa Hares, 79, was sentenced Thursday to one year in federal prison and ordered to pay $4.8 million in restitution. In addition, Hares will serve three years of supervised release once his prison term ends, U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon Jr. said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This physician abused his medical license and position of trust as a doctor to facilitate a massive health care fraud scheme at the expense of the American taxpayer,&#8221; Gorgon said.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors say that between 2019 and 2023, Hares and others submitted more than $7 million in fraudulent claims for psychotherapy services that were never provided.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to court records, Hares and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/detroit\/news\/5-people-charged-in-health-care-fraud-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mohammed Kazkaz<\/a>\u00a0signed patient progress notes, which were written by employees in Mexico and not actual medical practitioners.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kazkaz was previously sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for his role in the scheme, prosecutors said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Medicare fraud is theft from the American people, and physicians who exploit it for personal gain will be held responsible for their actions,&#8221; said Jennifer Runyan, special agent in charge of the FBI Detroit Field Office. &#8220;The defendant&#8217;s sentencing for this multimillion-dollar healthcare fraud scheme reflects the significant impact of his actions, which drained critical resources from a program designed to serve those in need and undermined trust in the medical professionals who follow the law.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The FBI and the Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General investigated the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A West Bloomfield, Michigan, surgeon will spend a year in prison for his role in a $7 million&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":736334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[35],"tags":[820,210,1141,1142,3235,67,132,68,276388],"class_list":["post-736333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-fraud","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-medicare","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-west-bloomfield"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116424817208778680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=736333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}