A former California chiropractor was sentenced Friday to 54 years in state prison and ordered to pay more than $23 million in fines for his role in a $150 million workers compensation fraud scheme, authorities announced Monday.
Peyman Heidary, who was convicted during a January jury trial of 68 counts of insurance fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and other charges, had exaggerated claimant injuries and ordered employees to provide unnecessary medical treatments, which resulted in inflated billings to insurers, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Mr. Heidary controlled several sham law firms and a network of sham health clinics between 2009 and 2014, prosecutors said. He used the sham law firm to recruit injured workers and then referred the individuals to his clinics for treatment resulting in fraudulent billing.
Prosecutors said Mr. Heidary was initially charged with $98 million in fraud but calculated damages rose to $150 million after additional evidence was presented at trial.