News India Times
October 9, 2015
12
– that’s all you need to know
Community
New Jersey Doctor Accused Of Groping Patient, Staff
From News Dispatches
New Jersey-based
medical practitioner,
Dr. Raja K. Jagtiani, 54,
was arrested last
month on charges of
sexual abuse of a patient and
three current and former
employees, a NothJersey.com
report, quoting the Bergen
County Prosecutor's Office
said.
Jagtiani was first arrested
Aug. 25 after being accused of
groping by one of his patients
and three of his employees. He
was then released after posting
a $20,000 bail. Jagtiani was
arrested a second time last
week of Sept. on similar
charges after three more
women came forward with
similar allegations, the report
published Oct. 1 said.
Reports said that the doctor
who is married and has prac-
tice called Jagtiani Urgent &
Primary Care, in Bergenfield,
faces multiple counts of crimi-
nal sexual contact, simple
assault and harassment by
offensive touching, according
to the Bergen County
Prosecutor's Office.
He is accused of inappropri-
ately touching seven women.
Jagtiani through his attorney
Aidan P. O'Connor, denied the
allegations, according to The
Bergen Record. Jagtiani agreed
to stop seeing patients while
the judicial process continues.
Jagtiani, according to news
reports, was released on
$50,000 bail last week. One of
Jagtiani’s original accusers, 38-
year-old Maria Zito, of Kearny,
went public with her story after
the doctor’s first arrest, telling
The Record that she is afraid of
him.
Jagtiani was charged with
four counts of criminal sexual
contact and one count of
harassment by offensive touch-
ing. He is scheduled for an
arraignment on the new
charges Oct. 7 in Bergenfield.
A
N.J. Woman Arrested For Scaming Desis
Ohio Cardiologist Convicted For Overbilling Medicare By Millions
By a StaffWriter
A
Westlake, Ohio cardiolo-
gist of Indian descent was
convicted of performing
serious and unnecessary heart
procedures as part of a scheme
to overbill Medicare and other
insurers by $7.2 million.
Dr. Harold Persaud, 56, was
convicted of one count of health
care fraud, 13 counts of making
false statements and one count
of engaging in monetary trans-
actions in property derived from
criminal activity.
He was acquitted on one
count of making a false state-
ment. Persaud overbilled
Medicare and private insurers
for about $7.2 million, of which
he was paid approxi-
mately $1.5 million,
according to the
indictment.
A sentencing date
was not specified in
the press release from
the U.S. Attorney for
the Northern District
of Ohio
Persaud had a pri-
vate medical practice in
Westlake and had hospital privi-
leges at Fairview Hospital, St.
John’s Medical Center and
Southwest General Hospital.
According to court docu-
ments and trial testi-
mony, between Feb. 16,
2006, through June 28,
2012, Persaud conduct-
ed serious medical pro-
cedures including per-
forming nuclear stress
tests on patients that
were not medically
necessary; recording
false results of patients’
nuclear stress tests to justify car-
diac catheterization procedures;
performing cardiac catheteriza-
tions on patients at the hospitals
and falsely recording the exis-
tence and extent of lesions
(blockage); recording false
symptoms in patient records to
justify testing and procedures on
patients.
The doctor went to the extent
of inserting cardiac stents in
patients who did not have 70
percent or more blockage in the
vessel that he stented and who
did not have symptoms of
blockage; placed a stent in a
stenosed artery that already had
a functioning bypass, thus pro-
viding no medical benefit and
increasing the risk of harm to
the patient; He even referred
patients for coronary artery
bypass surgery when there was
no medical necessity for such
surgery, which benefitted
Persaud by increasing the
amount of follow-up testing he
could perform and bill to
Medicare and private insurers.
Cleveland Businessman
Charged With Bribing
City Officials
From News Dispatches
A
Piscataway woman was arrested Sept. 25 in
connection with an alleged scam that
authorities say may be targeting Indian-
Americans. Mahwish Chaudry, 31, faces charges of
scamming a 76-year-old man out of $9,000, telling
the victim that he was in danger of losing his
home, police said.
According to a report in NJ.com last May
Chaudry called the man claiming she was
employed by a financial company and that his
home was in foreclosure, said police Capt. James
Sarnicki.
He said Chaudry then told him that she could
drive him to the bank to make cash withdrawal
and turn the money over to her to save his house.
The victim complied and gave Chaudry $4,000 in
cash, Sarnicki said. Several days later, the woman
called the victim again and said they needed more
money to prevent the foreclosure, Sarnicki said.
He said this time Chaudry was accompanied by a
second woman, and the two of them drove him to
a local bank where he withdrew $5,000 and gave it
to them. The victim subsequently reported the
incident to police and Detective Kenneth
Mikolajczyk investigated the case and obtained an
arrest warrant for Chaudry, Sarnicki said. He said
Chaudry was released pending a court hearing.
Police warned that this scammay be occurring
in the Indian-American community and ask that
any other possible victims come forward to their
local police departments.
Congress Party vice president Rahul Gandhi, center, was welcomed by officials of the Indian National Overseas Congress (I)
at LaGuardia Airport in New York Sept. 24. Gandhi was in transit at LaGuardia en route to Aspen, Colorado, to attend a
conference on ‘New Media and International Affairs.’ Gandhi’s sudden absence from the Parliament had led to speculation in
New Delhi about his whereabouts which was put to rest after Gandhi Tweeted about the Sept. 24-28 conference: "Very
interesting discussions on the global economy and the disruptive power of tech at the conference in Aspen” and posted a
few snapshots on the 'Office of RG' twitter account.
Rahul Gandhi Welcomed At LaGuardia Airport
From News Dispatches
A
n Indian-American
businessman in
Cleveland’s Lee-Harvard
neighborhood was indicted for
allegedly paying bribes to city
officials to get grant money
despite failing to fulfil the
required equal opportunity
employment goals. in order to
receive payment from a
$25,000 city grant despite fail-
ing to achieve the equal
opportunity employment
goals required by the
grant agreement,
said Steven M.
Dettelbach, U.S.
Attorney for the
Northern District of
Ohio, and Stephen D.
Anthony, Special
Agent in Charge of
the FBI’s Cleveland
office.
Ashwani “Eddie” Adya, 49,
of Solon, was indicted on one
count of conspiracy to commit
honest services mail fraud and
one count of making a false
statement to a law enforce-
ment officer. It involved pay-
ment from a $25,000 city
grant.
The case involved two co-
conspirators, Lawrence Payten
who worked at a non-profit
community organization that
promoted commercial devel-
opment in Cleveland’s Lee-
Harvard neighborhood; and
Lejon C. Woods who worked
as a contract compliance offi-
cer in the City of Cleveland’s
Office of Equal Opportunity.
Adya operated a retail food
and beverage business and is
alleged to have paid cash
bribes to Payten andWoods
between November 2009 and
August 2010, despite not meet-
ing the hiring objectives
required under the
Neighborhood Capital Funds
Grant Agreement he signed
with the city.
Woods previously
pleaded guilty to
receiving bribes from
three other businesses
and a criminal case
against Payten is
pending.
Payten andWoods
allegedly helped Adya
cover up the lack of
compliance so the business-
man could still receive the
$25,000 Neighborhood Capital
Funds disbursement, accord-
ing to the indictment.
If convicted, Adya's sen-
tence will be determined by
the court after reviewing sen-
tencing guidelines as well as
prior criminal record (if any),
and the characteristics of the
violation, a press release from
the U.S. Attorney for the
Northern District of Ohio.
Ashwani
“Eddie”
Adya, 49, of
Solon, was
indicted on
one count of
conspiracy
Dr. Harold
Persaudwas
convicted of
one count of
health care
fraud
