Local doctor pleads guilty to $1 Million Health Care Fraud Scheme

Washington, D.C. - Douglas F. Greer, an ophthalmologist with medical offices in Washington, D.C. and Annandale, Virginia, has pled guilty to health care fraud and filing a false federal income tax return announced U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, Francis L. Turner, Special Agent in Charge of the IRS's Washington Baltimore Field Office, Daniel R. Levinson, Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services, Patrick E. McFarland, Inspector General for the Office of Personnel Management, and Sherryl Hobbs Newman, Deputy Chief Financial Officer for the District of Columbia's Office of Tax and Revenue.
Greer pleaded guilty earlier today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Richard J. Leon.

In pleading guilty, Greer, 67, of the 4700 block of Kenmore Street, NW, Washington, D.C., admitted that between 1999 and 2002, he billed Medicare, several Federal Employee Health Benefit Plan third party insurers and other private insurance carriers for diagnostic and surgical procedures that he either did not provide or were not medically necessary. In total, Greer admitted that he fraudulently obtained $1,011,467.

Greer also admitted that for the calendar years 2000, 2001 and 2002, he paid personal expenses and salaries to his children and housekeeper with funds from his medical practice and falsely recorded these payments in the corporate records as legitimate expenses. As a result, Greer filed false corporate returns on behalf of his medical practice with the federal and District of Columbia governments. Greer similarly failed to include these diverted funds on the individual income tax returns he filed with the federal and District of Columbia taxing authorities. Finally, Greer admitted to taking charitable deductions on his federal and D.C. individual income tax returns for contributions he made to a non-profit organization that he knew were improperly used, in part, to pay for his family's vacations in the Cayman Islands.

Greer is scheduled to be sentenced on July 26, 2007. He faces a maximum term of imprisonment of 13 years. Greer has agreed as part of his plea agreement to make restitution to the health care providers in the amount of $1,011,467, to the Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $141,411 and to the District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue in the amount of $46,576. Greer also is entering into a civil settlement with the government regarding his liability under the Federal False Claims Act.

In announcing the guilty plea, U.S. Attorney Taylor, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Persichini, IRS Special Agent in Charge Turner, HHS Inspector General Levinson, OPM Inspector General McFarland and Deputy Chief Financial Officer Newman commended the investigatory work of FBI Special Agent Joseph Gordon, IRS Special Agent Kelly O'Mara, HHS Special Agent Jason Marrero, and OPM Special Agent Shantel Robinson. They also praised Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan B. Menzer, who is prosecuting the case, and U.S. Attorney Laurie J. Weinstein, who is handling the civil claims.

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