Virginia OB-GYN found guilty on 52 charges relating to unnecessary procedures
11/10/2020 2:22 pm PST
By Chelsea Donovan, WTKR
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WTKR) -- Chesapeake gynecologist Dr. Javaid Perwaiz was found guilty of 52 of 61 charges in court on Monday. He was found not guilty of eight, and one count was undecided.
Perwaiz is accused of performing dozens of unnecessary hysterectomies and removing ovaries and fallopian tubes over a nine-year period in Suffolk, Portsmouth and Chesapeake. The government believes Perwaiz made $2.4 million from the unnecessary surgeries on nearly three dozen women from 2010 to 2019.
In closing arguments, U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Yusi told the jury Perwaiz needed money to support a lavish lifestyle full of expensive cars, fur coats and $800,000 in shopping charges.
The prosecution said Perwaiz had a scheme, which included falsifying due dates, inducing women early, making up false symptoms and cancer scares to progress surgery and performing diagnostic tests with broken equipment. The prosecution said it was all in an effort to bill insurance companies.
The maximum penalty in his case is is 465 years. Perwaiz's sentencing hearing is set for March 31, 2021.
The Virginian-Pilot reports prosecutors presented evidence showing Perwaiz repeatedly failed to disclose to insurance companies that he'd pleaded guilty to felony tax evasion in 1996, or that his privileges at one hospital were temporarily suspended in 1983 after he was found to have performed about a dozen unneeded surgeries.
Several former patients testified they still suffer from pain and complications from their surgeries. They said they consented to the procedures because they trusted Perwaiz. Some testified they were told they had cancer or would get cancer if they didn't have the operation, according to the Virginian-Pilot.
Perwaiz had been charged in 2019 with 11 felonies including health care fraud, false statements related to health care matters and aggravated identify theft.
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