Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced that SPYROS PANOS was sentenced to 111 months in prison for health care fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. PANOS pled guilty to the charges on October 30, 2020. United States District Judge Kenneth M. Karas imposed the sentence today in White Plains federal court.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Spyros Panos, a former surgeon who surrendered his license to practice medicine after a prior conviction for health care fraud in this District, abused our healthcare system for his own personal profit again, and he is now facing a return to prison. The sentence he received appropriately reflects the seriousness of his crime and of recidivism in the eyes of the law.”
According to the Indictment, to which PANOS pled guilty, and other statements and submissions made in Court:
PANOS surrendered his New York State license to practice medicine in 2013 in anticipation of pleading guilty to an indictment charging him with health care fraud. Thereafter, while out on release in that case, and after surrendering his license, he began perpetrating a scheme to defraud six medical peer review companies by impersonating a licensed orthopedic surgeon practicing in Westchester County (“Doctor-1”). Among other things, PANOS submitted Doctor-1’s credentials to peer review companies and conducted peer reviews using Doctor-1’s name and credentials. He stopped engaging in the scheme while he served his prison sentence. After he was released, he resumed perpetrating the scheme. During the course of the scheme, PANOS defrauded the peer review companies of $876,389.97.
According to court documents, in advance of his November 2, 2020, trial, PANOS submitted proposed defense exhibits that included fraudulent emails and records. While on release pending sentencing, PANOS submitted false and fraudulent documents in support of requests for adjournments of sentencing based on false claims that he tested positive for COVID-19 and then suffered from COVID related pneumonia. In July 2022, after the Court revoked his bail conditions and ordered him remanded, PANOS was arrested and placed in custody.
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In addition to the prison term, PANOS, 54, of Hopewell Junction, New York, was sentenced to three years of supervised release.
Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the New York Inspector General.
The prosecution of this case is being handled by the Office’s White Plains Division. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Margery Feinzig and Lindsey Keenan are charge of the prosecution.