Jan. 06--A Chicago podiatrist convicted last summer for his role in a massive fraud scheme at Sacred Heart Hospital was sentenced Tuesday to three months in prison as well as three months of work release.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly imposed the sentence on Dr. Shanin Moshiri after a hearing took up much of the day. Moshiri must surrender to corrections authorities by March 9.
Federal prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to three years in prison, while Moshiri's attorney had asked for probation.
Kennelly said Moshiri violated the trust between a patient and doctor by participating in the scheme, but the judge said he found letters of support from Moshiri's family and friends "impressive."
"Good people do bad things," Kennelly said. "Dr. Moshiri is a good person who has done a lot of good."
Federal prosecutors alleged that the hospital's owner, Edward Novak, spearheaded the scheme involving several administrators and doctors, paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks to funnel patients on Medicare to the beleaguered hospital. The judge found Moshiri guilty in July of accepting $2,000 monthly payments in exchange for his patient referrals, collecting almost $200,000 in all.
Moshiri was caught on an undercover FBI recording complaining that Novak never was satisfied with the number of patients he directed to the now-shuttered West Side facility.
Novak and two top hospital executives were convicted in a separate trial in March that prominently featured Moshiri's recorded statements to substantiate the existence of the kickback arrangements. The kickbacks were disguised as staffing perks, lease agreements and teaching contracts, prosecutors said.
Novak, a pharmacist, was sentenced in July to 4 1/2 years in prison. The judge sentenced Clarence Nagelvoort, the former chief operating officer, to 21 months in prison, while Roy Payawal, the former chief financial officer, was given just over one year.
Two other doctors also have been sentenced. One physician and two top hospital administrators pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing, prosecutors said, while one other defendant is awaiting trial.
During the sentencing hearing, Moshiri's attorney tried to downplay his role in the scheme, arguing that the doctor did not realize until very late that the payments were for anything nefarious.
Attorney Carl Clavelli portrayed Moshiri as becoming unwittingly ensnared in the hospital's calamitous financial problems.
"Had he appreciated what he was involved in, he wouldn't have gotten involved," Clavelli said. "He just took the money. He didn't think, 'I wonder if this is a kickback.' I truly believe it never crossed his mind until further down the road."
Clavelli also pointed to Moshiri's work with low-income patients to argue he should not be sent to prison.
"He believes in serving society," Clavelli said. "Not everyone has a heart that big."
But federal prosecutors argued that Moshiri was not only a knowledgeable participant in the long-term kickback scheme but also collected thousands of dollars in insurance payments after falsely claiming he was fully disabled from surgery on his hand.
"What Dr. Moshiri did here was not unique or aberrational, but instead was part of a larger series of acts Dr. Moshiri did during that time," Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Wallach said. "As he did with his Sacred Heart contracts, he did maintain the window dressing, maintain the sham."
Kennelly said the insurance issue was "fishy" but he was not convinced it was fraud, so he would not consider that in his sentencing.
cdrhodes@tribpub.com
